China-US mistrust over THAAD a ‘military relations failure’, US defence official says
Michael Pillsbury, a well-known China hand, says US faces uphill climb getting Beijing to accept US missile defence system’s deployment in South Korea
The mistrust between the US and China over the deployment of a US missile defence system on the Korean Peninsula is a “failure of military relations” between the sides, a long-time US defence adviser said, adding that persuading China that the system is not against it could be extremely difficult for the US.
Michael Pillsbury, a well-known China hand and former US Defence Department official, said on Tuesday that the US’ installation of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defence, or THAAD, system in South Korea has inflamed people in China’s military and intelligence operations to the extent that they believe the move is “part of a large American plot” to neutralise China’s nuclear deterrence capability against the US.
Although the dispute is “a failure of military relations between the US and China”, Pillsbury told a think tank event in Washington, there are “ways” to assure China that its belief about the purpose of THAAD is “simply not true”.
Pillsbury, who described himself as a “friend” of US President Donald Trump at the event, is also the author of the book, The Hundred-Year Marathon, which contends that China has a secret 100-year plan to replace the US as the global superpower. Pillsbury is now a director for Chinese strategy at the Washington-based Hudson Institute think tank.