China's top admiral offered his US counterpart a warm welcome on Sunday when Admiral Gary Roughead arrived in China for events to mark the 60th anniversary of the Chinese navy.
Admiral Wu Shengli offered to fly Adm Roughead on his military aircraft from Beijing to Qingdao, where naval ships will participate tomorrow in an international fleet review. While the gesture may herald better relations, defence experts say US-China military ties are not yet back on track having been derailed last October by the Bush administration's decision to sell $6.5bn (€5.0bn, £4.4bn) of weapons to Taiwan.
“We have made several offers of senior military officials to go to China and for senior Chinese to come here, and those have not yet been accepted,” said Dennis Wilder, an Asia expert at the Brookings Institution who served as an adviser to George W. Bush.
