Thank you for your comments. It stands to reason that there would be military exchanges before WWI, although I am not personally aware of any. The ones I looked at in my research were after the “hotline” between the U.S. and U.S.S.R was a major contributing factor to avoiding nuclear war during the Cuban Missile crisis.

Trust is no silver bullet and war could always happen. In many ways, I think that trust has to be built at a “grass roots” level and then momentum built over time. In the case of China I would say it has to build slowly, it would begin with simple notifications of ship movements and exercises just so there are no miscalculations. It could then grow from there to include mutual inspections of facilities and bases. In the long-term, exchange of students at war colleges and other military education institutions would build trust that would someday that may pay off when officers rose through the ranks. When dealing with complex human emotions like trust, there are no hard and fast rules.

Thanks again for the comments!