Milley Speaks Out About Reported Calls With Chinese Counterpart

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley is defending reported phone calls he had with his Chinese counterpart.

In response to a report from a new book that he promised to give Chinese officials advanced notice if then-President 👤Donald Trump ordered a strike in the waning days of his presidency, Milley did not deny that he held calls with Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army.

However, he told The Associated Press on Friday that they were “routine” and meant “to reassure both allies and adversaries in this case in order to ensure strategic stability.” He also said they were “perfectly within the duties and responsibilities” of his job.

He did not go into more detail but added, “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 he would “go into any level of detail Congress wants to go into in a couple of weeks.”

His comments come after an excerpt of the new book “Peril” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa of The Washington Post, revealed that Milley was so concerned that Trump would start a war with China that he contacted his Chinese counterpart to assure them that the U.S. could not conduct a strike.