Beijing may not have had the highest-powered delegation at the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual informal gathering of defence ministers and military analysts, but it was the team on everybody's lips.
Lieutenant-General Zhang Qinsheng , deputy chief of the PLA General Staff, used his address to appeal for peaceful co-operation and understanding, while at other times openly questioning US and Japanese missile-defence policies. He was also apparently at ease as he dealt with questions during open sessions.
As questioners demanded more transparency from China about its military expansion, General Zhang slammed a recent critical Pentagon report as 'unreliable', describing it as a 'product of the cold war mindset'.
One member of his delegation, Senior Colonel Yao Yunzhu, questioned the repeated cold war references used by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, whose own speech marked the start of his first mission to Asia.
Colonel Yao asked whether the US was taking a cold war approach to China. Dr Gates was forced into considerable detail in his answer, stressing that he was referring to tough lessons learned during earlier tensions, particularly the way diplomatic and military engagement with the former Soviet Union prevented conflict.
'We've never seen this kind of confidence from the Chinese technocrats before,' one veteran Asian delegate said - comments widely echoed in the hallways. 'It's an important shift - the way Beijing is now openly defending its corner and scoring its own points at this kind of event.'