WWIII hoax reminds: There's no room for miscommunication

While the hoax on Friday has neither triggered a war or even a stock market fluctuation, it may remind China and the US of the importance of close communication between the two militaries to prevent potential miscalculation and misjudgment.

The two countries have pledged to make progress in that regard. During US President Barack Obama's trip to Beijing in November, he and Chinese President Xi Jinping endorsed two memoranda of understanding for the two militaries to work together to reduce the possibility of military accidents by early notification of major military operations and establishing guidelines of behavior on naval and air military encounters.

That appears to be an increasingly urgent task as the US plans to send its most sophisticated ships and aircraft to the Asia-Pacific region to beef up its presence in the region under the so-called Pivot to Asia-Pacific strategy. Under the plan, roughly 60 percent of the US Navy fleet will be deployed in the Pacific by 2020.

That occurs at a time when a fast-growing China is modernizing its defense capabilities, including building a powerful navy and air force and stepping up its presence in the region.

The situation has been complicated by the fact that the US military has long been operating close-in surveillance along China's coast, and the maritime territorial disputes in the South and East China seas between China and the Philippines and Japan - two US security treaty allies - could potentially involve the US.

Despite the growing military-to-military exchanges between China and the US in the past two years, distrust or a lack of mutual trust, mutual understanding or communication is still a key issue between the two militaries.

There are bitter lessons from the US EP-3 spy plane collision with a Chinese fighter jet in 2001 and the near collision in late 2013 of US Navy guided missile cruiser Cowpens and a Chinese fleet, both in South China Sea.

Some pointed out that the US and Soviet Union maintained a hotline through the height of the Cold War, but such a hotline does not exist between China and the US, despite the some 90 bilateral mechanisms covering a wide range of fields.

Of course, things are improving as shown by the two MOUs regarding the military during Obama's trip to Beijing.

From Jan 12-19, the two militaries have been engaging in a dialogue and joint drills on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in southern China's Guangdong province and Hainan Island, with 150 engineering and medical service personnel from the two countries taking part.

But the 2000 US National Defense Authorization Act forbids the US military from conducting more exchanges and joint drills with its Chinese counterpart, something the Chinese have regarded as a major hindrance to improving military-to-military ties.

The Twitter hoax last Friday might be a timely warning to leave no room for misunderstanding, miscalculation and misjudgment.

Contact the writer at chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com.