BEIJING -- The commander of China's nuclear rocket forces has accepted an invitation to visit the United States, in a small but significant breakthrough for U.S. efforts to improve military relations with China.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced that Gen. Jing Zhiyuan, commander of China's 2nd Artillery Corps, had accepted his invitation to visit the headquarters of the U.S. Strategic Command in Nebraska. Gates made the announcement on the last day of a three-day trip to China -- his first in three year
U.S. officials have been inviting Jing and his predecessors for decades, but they have all declined. They have traveled abroad - to Sweden and Bulgaria, among other countries.
Jing's acceptance of the invitation was one of the bright spots on Gates's trip -- undertaken to restore high-level military talks with China
Chinese general to visit U.S. base in small sign of thawing military ties