US Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley took the initiative to call his Chinese counterpart to assure him that the United States would not attack China. That’s what Bob Woodward and Robert Costa of The Washington Post write in their book The Danger. Bob Woodward is best known in the United States as one of the two journalists who exposed the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s that led to the resignation of then-President Richard Nixon.
When US intelligence determined that China considered a possible US attack, the chief of staff, General Li Zuocheng, called twice, on October 30, shortly before the US presidential election, and on January 8, two days after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.
According to the book, he told him in his first phone call, “General Lee, I want to assure you that the United States is stable and that all will be well.” It is based on anonymous reports from 200 US officials. “We will not attack you and we will not conduct military operations against you.”
In addition, Milley called on staff to stress that if Trump orders a nuclear strike, he should be informed first. He also asked then-CIA Director Gina Haspel and Chief of Military Intelligence, General Paul Nakasone, to monitor the then president’s erratic behavior.
