Two regional rows set to overshadow Beijing security forum
Row with Singapore over South China Sea ruling and deployment of US anti-missile system in South Korea complicate agenda
The spat between China and Singapore over a ruling on South China Sea claims and Seoul’s decision to allow a US anti-ballistic-missile system to deployed on its territory are likely to overshadow a regional security forum starting in Beijing on Monday, analysts say.
The seventh Xiangshan Forum, dubbed Asia’s “new security architecture” by Beijing, will officially have four main themes: the role of militaries in global governance, responding to new security challenges in the Asia-Pacific region through cooperation, maritime security cooperation, and international terrorist threats and countermeasures.
China hopes the Xiangshan Forum will be another influential international security opinion platform
The three-day forum will open just 10 days after South Korea announced a new site for a US Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system designed to counter North Korea’s missile threat, and 19 days after a report in the nationalist tabloid Global Times, owned by Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily, sparked an escalating row over Singapore’s role in territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
“The South China Sea, and even the East China Sea, as well as the THAAD deployment will unavoidablely be discussed by participanting countries,” Beijing-based naval expert Li Jie said.
Defence Ministry spokesman Senior Colonel Yang Yujun said South Korea was among the 60 invited countries sending a delegation to the forum, while Singapore told the South China Morning Post it would be represented by a delegation headed by Ong Ye Kung, its acting Minister for Education and Senior Minister of State for the Ministry of Defence.
Professor Jin Yinan, former director of the strategic research institute at the People’s Liberation Army’s National Defence University, told state-owned China National Radio on September 30 that Beijing should impose sanctions and retaliate against Singapore to make the city state “pay the price for seriously damaging China’s interests”.