On this point, the U.S. will not only pay attention to what the PRC says, but will also use all methods to achieve surveillance of PRC military production and military deployment.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Needed: A Real Commitment to Taiwan

It was the first senior US meeting with the Chinese military since the May 2001 incident in which the PRC forced down a US Navy intelligence plane over international waters and imprisoned the crew.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: feitht2

Also, travels by internal security chief and Politburo Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang have been seen as indicating efforts of a conservative bloc in the party leadership from the security, military, and propaganda sectors to assert itself in PRC foreign policy, an interpretation that may aid in explaining the uneven but persistent evidence of hard-line trends in that arena over the past year and a half.

FORBES: Views On Political Reform And Leadership Splits In China