China should keep on going to forums like the Shangri-La Dialogue – even if it doesn’t like what it hears

A Chinese delegate said the Singapore security forum was ‘dominated by the US and its allies’ and seemed to suggest that China might not take part in future
But that would not be in Beijing’s best interests as such forums offer valuable insights, opportunities for diplomacy, and a platform for China to air its views

Maria Siow

Published: 8:00am, 17 Jun 2022

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Zhou Xiaozhuo sounded like he was making a veiled threat when he said that the recently concluded Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore served “the interest of the United States and its allies”.

The People’s Liberation Army representative and senior fellow of its Academy of Military Sciences gave the impression that China might be reluctant to attend future sessions.

I hope that was not his or his country’s intention.

Why would China want to be excluded from forums that have actively sought its participation?

There are already enough groupings, or what Beijing calls “cliques”, that deliberately seek to ostracise China – from the recently revived Quad, to Aukus, to the US-instigated Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity.

At a time of heightened ideological contestation and deepening great power rivalry, it is in Beijing’s best interest to hear what its adversaries have to say, even if the messages are not always palatable.

Surely China wants to know what others are thinking and saying about it?

The Shangri-La Dialogue and forums like it can help Beijing avoid strategic miscalculations by giving it a better handle on the intentions of its competitors.

They also offer China a platform to air its views. Chinese Defence Minister General Wei Fenghe’s speech on Sunday, in which said China will “fight to the very end” any efforts to make Taiwan independent, was a case in point.

Wei didn’t just give a speech, however, he also had the chance to meet his US and Australian counterparts for face-to-face meetings, which would not have happened if China had chosen to stay away.

China’s Defence Minister Wei Fenghe, right, greets US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, left, during a ministerial roundtable luncheon at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday. Photo: Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images/TNS

Beijing later described Wei’s meeting with US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin as “constructive”. The two also sat diagonally across from each other at dinner, and though details of their interaction there are scant, the mood was likely more cordial than during their earlier meeting when they reportedly traded barbs over Taiwan.

Wei’s meeting with Australia’s new defence chief Richard Marles, meanwhile, was the first between ministers from the two countries in more than two years and gave both sides the opportunity to discuss last month’s interception of an Australian surveillance plane by a Chinese jet.

Zhou, in his comments during the final plenary session, also claimed the dialogue was “dominated by the US and its allies”, but this is not entirely true.

Britain, Japan and Australia were there for sure, but so were representatives from Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia and a host of other countries such as the Philippines and Qatar.

China should continue showing up at such forums, if not to hear the views of its adversaries and amplify its voice, then at the very least to make more friends and better understand the region’s dynamics.

It need not be a zero-sum game. Forums like these can serve both “the interest of the US and its allies” and China’s.