China and US renew cooperation to find World War II servicemen’s remains
China and the United States have agreed that their militaries will continue working together to locate the remains of missing American servicemen in China. The commitment followed a summit between Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump and provides a relatively low-risk area of cooperation amid wider disputes over trade, technology and security.
China and the United States have renewed a commitment for their militaries to cooperate in searching for the remains of American service members missing in China since World War II. The agreement was included in an eight-point list of outcomes from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit, alongside understandings on artificial intelligence and trade. China’s Foreign Ministry said both sides would continue working together to search for the remains of missing US personnel in China.
Observers described the issue as a practical and relatively uncontroversial area for cooperation at a time when Beijing and Washington remain in competition over security, technology and trade. Zhou Bo, a senior fellow at Tsinghua University and a retired Chinese army colonel, said continuing earlier cooperation gave both sides an additional channel for engagement. The agreement also followed repeated references by Mr.
Xi and President Donald Trump to the countries’ wartime partnership. Mr. Trump praised the American Flying Tigers, while Mr.
Xi recalled Chinese and American cooperation against Japanese aggression and the air route known as “The Hump”, which carried supplies across the Himalayas. US military records and historical research indicate that more than 120,000 American service members were deployed to China during the 1940s. The US Defence POW/MIA Accounting Agency estimates that the remains of about 690 unaccounted-for American personnel are believed to be on the Chinese mainland.
Search efforts began during the war but were interrupted by the Chinese civil war and the breakdown in relations. They resumed after diplomatic ties were established in 1979, then faced further disruption during the Covid-19 pandemic and later bilateral tensions. Cooperation resumed after Xi and then-President Joe Biden agreed in 2023 to restore military communications.
A DPAA team conducted field surveys in Guangxi and Hunan in January 2024, the first such activity in China since the pandemic. The latest agreement renews that effort, although the source does not provide a timetable or list of specific search sites.
This independently written report is based on information supplied by the named publisher. Vertrix News has not independently verified the source report.