Today, The Hill and others report on US Adm. Samuel Paparo’s video conference with Gen. Wu Yanan.  Adm. Paparo heads the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.  Gen. Wu serves as commander of the People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theater Command. The US government has repeatedly asserted the importance it places on military-to-military (mil-mil) communications.

While understandable from a US desire to avoid misunderstandings that could ignite war, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), which pledges its allegiance to the Communist Party of China (CPC) and not to China or Chinese people, weighs mil-mil communications differently.

To begin, the CPC has different goals than the US for mil-mil communication.  It uses communications to influence or interrogate call participants.  Despite US attestations of the reasons for a call, the CPC fears that the US uses calls for the same reasons they do.

Second, the PLA counterpart simply does not have the same degree of authority or trust that United States places in Adm. Paparo.  One of the United States’ greatest strengths is trusting its citizens and leaders then giving them both responsibility and authority to make decisions and takes actions.  Paparo can count on our confidence in him, and he knows it.  Gen. Wu, in contrast, is trapped in an organization that will, first, script his message and, second, have his head (perhaps literally) if Paparo appears to get the better of Wu or embarrass the CPC or the PLA in any way and regardless of how assiduously Wu sticks to the script.

Simply put, Wu has no upside and potentially career-ending downside from having a video conference call with Paparo.

Despite these caveats, the US should unflinchingly encourage Paparo to hold as many calls as possible with Wu, and Wu’s successors, and to press messages that wear down the PLA’s confidence in its ability to engage US INDOPACOM forces.