U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday the Chinese military may be thwarting efforts to improve military-to-military relations in an apparent split with the country's political leadership.
China scaled back military ties after the Obama administration notified Congress in January of a plan to sell Taiwan up to $6.4 billion worth of arms.
In what some U.S. officials took as a snub, China turned down a proposed visit by Gates aimed at mending fences during his trip to Asia this week.
"My opinion (is) that the PLA (People's Liberation Army) is significantly less interested in developing this relationship than the political leadership of the country," Gates told reporters on his plane as he arrived in Singapore to attend a major security conference.
Gates is scheduled to meet his Japanese and South Korean counterparts but not a Chinese delegation, led by a general, at the summit.
Some U.S. officials saw the friction with China as particularly worrisome given heightened tensions in the region after the United States and South Korea concluded that North Korea was behind the sinking of a South Korean warship in March.
By: Brant
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