Joint Chiefs chairman: reassuring China ‘perfectly’ within scope of duties.
Joint Chiefs chair to talk to Congress about issue
ATHENS, Greece – The top U.S. military officer said Friday that calls he made to his Chinese counterpart in the final stormy months of Donald Trump’s presidency were “perfectly within the duties and responsibilities” of his job.
In his first public comments on the conversations, Gen. Mark Milley said such calls are “routine” and were done “to reassure both allies and adversaries in this case in order to ensure strategic stability.”
Milley has been at the center of a firestorm amid reports he made two calls to Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army to assure him the U.S. was not going to suddenly go to war with or attack China.
Descriptions of the calls made last October and in January were first aired in excerpts from the forthcoming book “Peril” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. The book says Milley told Li he would warn Li in the event of an attack.
Milley on Friday offered only a brief defense of his calls, saying he plans a deeper discussion about the matter for Congress when he testifies at a hearing this month.
“I think it’s best that I reserve my comments on the record until I do that in front of the lawmakers who have the lawful responsibility to oversee the U.S. military,” Milley said. “I’ll go into any level of detail Congress wants to go into in a couple of weeks.”
Milley and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are scheduled to testify Sept. 28 before the Senate Armed Services Committee, in what initially was going to be a hearing on the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Milley is expected to face tough questioning on the telephone calls, which came during Trump’s turbulent last months. The second call, on Jan. 8, came two days after Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol in an effort to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s White House victory.
A special House committee that is investigating the Jan. 6 riot has asked for details about Milley’s calls.
Milley was appointed Joint Chiefs chairman by Trump in 2019 and has remained in that post in the Biden administration. As chairman, Milley is the top military adviser to the president and to the defense secretary.
The White House and the Pentagon chief have said they continue to have confidence in Milley.
The new book says Milley, fearful of Trump’s actions late in his term, twice called his Chinese counterpart to assure him that the U.S. would not attack China. One call took place on Oct. 30, four days before the American election. The second was on Jan. 8, less than two weeks before Biden’s inauguration and two days after the insurrection at the Capitol.
Some U.S. lawmakers have said Milley overstepped his authority, and they have called for Biden to fire him. Trump blasted Milley as treasonous, called him “a complete nutjob” and said Milley “never told me about calls being made to China.”
Biden said after the disclosures in the book that “I have great confidence in Gen. Milley.”
Milley’s office, in a statement, said the calls were intended to convey “reassurance” to the Chinese military and were in line with his responsibilities as Joint Chiefs chairman.