The US is keenly interested in having a military dialogue with China to be able to better understand that country’s programmes but Beijing has not been forthcoming to it, an administration official has said.

“We continue to be very interested in military-to- military engagement and dialogue so that we can better understand what China’s plans are for the region,” State Department spokesman P J Crowley, told reporters at his daily news conference.

“We have been encouraging that kind of dialogue, and as far as I know we have offered the opportunity for military dialogue, and China has not been forthcoming,” Crowley said in response to a question.

Early this week, senior Pentagon officials said that the Chinese have not been as transparent as they could be about their military transformation programme, leaving the US-China dialogue open to misunderstanding and miscommunication that could lead to miscalculation.

The official said China ended the military-to-military dialogue with the US after the Obama Administration’s sale of USD 6.4 billion in defensive weapons to Taiwan.

The on-again, off-again nature of China’s engagement with the US military ended the period of civility and progress in the military-to-military relationship, he said.

“The United States has tried to restart the contacts. It is now up to China to make the next move and demonstrate that it is in their interest to stay in that relationship and that they desire to sustain these engagements through periods of turbulence,” the official said.