The highest-ranking U.S. military officer admitted on Tuesday that he told a Chinese general last year that the United States was not going to attack China. Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a congressional panel that he was certain in October 2020 that then-President Donald Trump “did not intend to attack the Chinese.” Milley said then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper directed him to convey that intent to Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army. Intelligence indicated that the Chinese Communist Party was concerned about such an attack, according to a declassified memorandum on the calls. “My task at that time was to deescalate. My message, again, was consistent: ‘Stay calm, steady and deescalate. We are not going to attack you,'” Milley said. That call and another made on Jan. 8 of this year were coordinated with Esper, his successor Christopher Miller, and other U.S. officials, …