Mark Milley says calls to Chinese general were within his duties
Top US general under fire over reports of talks with Chinese counterpart at end of Trump term.
The Pentagon’s top military officer, Mark Milley, said he would mount a vigorous defence of two calls he placed to his Chinese counterpart in the tumultuous last days of the Trump administration, describing an effort to calm Beijing’s nerves and avert a military conflict.
“These are routine calls in order to discuss issues of the day, to reassure both allies and adversaries in this case, in order to ensure strategic stability,” General Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters travelling with him on a military jet on Friday. “And these are perfectly within the duties and responsibilities of the chairman.”
General Milley was speaking publicly for the first time since reports on a new book revealed he made two calls to his Chinese counterpart, one in October 2020 and another in January. Beijing had grown concerned that then president Donald Trump was considering attacking China as tensions between the two nations rose in the South China Sea and Mr Trump’s own rhetoric grew more fiery, according to media reporting on Peril, the book due out on Wednesday by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.
That prompted General Milley to reach out to his Chinese counterpart to reassure Beijing that the US wouldn’t strike, and that if an attack were to occur, General Milley would give his counterpart a heads-up, according to reporting on the book. Reports of those calls inflamed conservative Republican criticism of General Milley, who some critics believe should step down or be fired.
General Milley made about 20 calls to his counterparts between October and January, including to military leaders in Afghanistan, Canada, Israel, Japan, Korea, Kuwait, NATO, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the UK, officials said.
The call between General Milley and his Chinese counterpart, Li Zuocheng, on January 8 followed another call two days earlier between a top Pentagon policy official and his counterpart in China, according to US defence officials. That call was authorised by acting defence secretary Chris Miller, who was also apprised of the Milley call, officials said.
General Milley has been condemned by some of the same critics on the right for his positions on gender and race in the military, on the teaching of controversial social and political theory at the US Military Academy West Point, and for his role in the drawdown of troops from Afghanistan.
General Milley, travelling to Athens to attend a NATO conference of defence ministers, said he wanted to wait until he could testify in the Senate on September 28 to provide more clarity about his actions instead of using the media to defend himself.
“I will go into any level of detail congress wants to go into,” he said.
President Joe Biden is standing by General Milley, whose term runs to October 2023, as are a number of top Democrats and former officials such as John Bolton, who was one of Mr Trump’s national security advisers.
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