The US would like to strengthen military cooperation with China, including repatriating the remains of American soldiers killed in the country during World War II, a senior Pentagon official has said.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who is scheduled to visit Asia next week, will meet with his Chinese counterpart General Wei Fenghe on the sidelines of a meeting in Bangkok, said Randall Schriver, assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs.
"Our preference would be a more cooperative relationship with China," Schriver said. Esper will "ask for increased cooperation on the missing in action, primarily from the Second World War, where we have had off-again, on-again cooperation from the Chinese. And we'd like to see that resume in a more robust level."