Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley has visited Beijing to brief the Chinese People’s Liberation Army on the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
Gordon Lubold writes Milley is scheduled Tuesday to meet Gen. Li Zuocheng, head of PLA’s ground forces, and his personnel to assure PLA that the plan to field the THAAD system in South Korea aims to protect the latter country and the U.S. from North Korea’s ballistic missile threats.
The meeting between Milley and Li comes amid the Chinese government’s concerns that the THAAD platform could undermine China’s nuclear deterrent, Lubold reports.
The U.S. and South Korea decided in July to deploy the Lockheed Martin-built THAAD system on the Korean Peninsula in response to North Korea’s ballistic and nuclear missile tests.
The THAAD system is designed to intercept short- and medium-range ballistic missile threats within and outside the atmosphere through the use of a kinetic energy-based interceptor fired from a truck-mounted launcher.
