Cheng Xiaogong, assistant chief of general staff of the PLA, met with the U.S. delegation attending the 8th seminar on China-U.S. security headed by William Perry, former U.S. Secretary of Defense in Beijing on June 30.

　　Chen Xiaogong spoke highly of the positive role played by the seminar on China-U.S security in promoting the relations between the two countries and the two militaries. He said that thanks to the concern of and promotion by the leaders of the two countries and common efforts made by defense departments of the two countries, the relations between the two militaries have seen good growth on the whole, as evidenced by steady progress of high-level visits and mechanism-based exchanges between the two militaries. In addition, the two sides have steadily expanded and enriched the connotation of their exchanges and cooperation by way of establishing direct dialing telephone line between the Chinese national defense ministry and the U.S. defense department, etc. Chen Xiaogong stressed that China has all along taken a positive attitude towards developing the China-U.S. military relations and is willing to work together with the U.S. side to view and handle the China-U.S. military relationship from a strategic height and long-term perspective and push for healthy and steady development of the relations between the two militaries.

　　Qian Lihua, director general of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Ministry of National Defense and Chen Zhiya, secretary general of the China Foundation for International Strategic Studies, were present at the meeting.

　　By Zhou Feng

　　(July 1, PLA Daily)                                        Editor: Ouyang Dongmei