BEIJING (Reuters) - The leader of a U.S. congressional delegation to China warned Tuesday of the “risk of a misunderstanding” between the two countries’ militaries as advances in defense technology move at breakneck speed.
Adam Smith, the most senior Democrat on Washington’s Armed Services Committee, told journalists in Beijing that China needs to talk more about its military with other global powers “for basic de-confliction.”
“We’ve seen this with our ships, our planes, their ships, their planes coming entirely too close to one another,” he said at a news conference at the U.S. Embassy.
“We need to have a better conversation about de-conflicting those things.”
The four-person delegation also includes other members of the same Armed Services Committee – Democrats Ro Khanna and Chrissy Houlahan – as well as Republican congressman Michael Baumgartner, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
The group on Monday met Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun, with whom they talked about the importance of “working through our differences” and more candid dialogue, according to a statement from the US side.
Dong called on the visitors to “remove disruptive and restrictive factors” between them, China’s Xinhua state news agency reported.
Speaking on Tuesday alongside the other lawmakers and the U.S. Ambassador to China, David Perdue, Smith said: “AI and drone warfare and cyber and space is moving so rapidly and innovation is happening so quickly.
“The risk of a misunderstanding of capabilities on one side or the other is great,” he said, adding the two sides need to talk so they “don’t stumble in any sort of conflicts.”
The bipartisan congressional delegation comes just days after President Xi Jinping and Donald Trump spoke by telephone for the second time since the return to the White House of Trump, who has tried to keep a lid on tensions despite his once virulent criticism of China.
Trump said he would meet Xi on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea starting at the end of next month and that he would travel to China next year.
He said Xi would also visit the United States at an unspecified time and that the two leaders would speak again by telephone.