The Vice-Chairman of China's Central Military Commission, General Fan Changlong, is continuing his five-day visit to the U.S. General Fan is making a number of stops around the country.
On Tuesday, General Fan Changlong visited two military bases in the U.S. West Coast state of California. He's due to visit one more in Texas on Wednesday, before arriving in Washington DC on Thursday, to meet with the U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter.
On Friday, he'll also meet with officials from the White House and State Department.
He's a familiar face to many of them. Last month General Fan met with the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry upon his visit to Beijing. Now in the U.S., the Chinese general is leading the largest military delegation to visit the country since Xi Jinping became president of China more than two years ago. It also comes just two weeks before a major U.S.-China dialogue, to be held here in Washington and just months before the Chinese leader is due here in the U.S.
General Fan's visit to the U.S. comes amid growing tensions between the Washington and Beijing over Chinese activities in the South China Sea. The U.S. wants China to agree to international arbitration to resolve disagreements over the waters, while China says its maritime activities fall within its sovereign territory.
The dispute, at times, has had a military overtone, casting a shadow over cooperative pursuits. Both sides say they don't want that to be the case.
No doubt both sides will reiterate their positions as the week progresses ... but experts say the high-level visit is a good sign that relations between the world's two largest economies are still on the right track.
