US Defense Chief Ashton Carter welcomes visiting vice chair of China's Central Military Commission Fan Changlong at the Pentagon on June, 11, 2015. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com]

A top Chinese military officer has met with US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter as part of his trip in the United States.

General Fan Changlong, vice-chairman of China's Central Military Commission, met with Carter at the Pentagon on Thursday.

This is part of a trip to the US involving a high-level Chinese military delegation.

The trip itself began in California with a tour of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and other military installations.

Fan Changlong has also made stops at the Boeing factory in Seattle and the Army's Fort Hood base in Texas.

For more on the trip, CRI's Liu Kun spoke earlier with Clifford Kiracofe, professor of Foreign Affairs at the Virginia Military Institute, and a former staffer with the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.