Global Impact: top brass from China, US failed to meet at the Shangri-La Dialogue, but they still had plenty to say

Name: China, US offer competing security visions for Asia-Pacific at security forum
Uploaded: 2023-06-12T06:00:11.000Z
Duration: 3 min 45 s
Description: China, US offer competing security visions for Asia-Pacific at security forum

Global Impact is a weekly curated newsletter featuring a news topic originating in China with a significant macro impact for our newsreaders around the world

In this edition, we look back at the Shangri-La Dialogue and also at what is next for US-China relations after another round of finger-pointing

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Li Shangfu delivers a speech during the Shangri-La Dialogue. Photo: AFP

Jack Lau

Published: 2:00pm, 12 Jun 2023

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The handshake and the brief “nice to meet you” between the US and Chinese defence ministers might have taken the headlines at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s biggest defence forum that ended last weekend, when a bilateral meeting didn’t happen like last year’s event.

The bigger news, though, was how China and the US played a war of narratives and messaging at the Singapore conference. They agree on the facts but disagree on the interpretation.

US Secretary Defence Lloyd Austin spent most of his speech repeating Washington’s call for a “free and open Indo-Pacific” and a stronger network of like-minded Asian nations to push back against China’s “coercion and bullying”, especially in the Taiwan Strait.

So, what’s new? Austin portrayed China as being unwilling to hold military dialogue with the US after General Li Shangfu, his Chinese counterpart, declined a bilateral meeting. He said for responsible leaders, talk could happen any time and was a must to avoid miscalculation that could lead to a conflict.

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China, US offer competing security visions for Asia-Pacific at security forum

The next day, Li disputed that China was unwilling to engage. He said communication channels on various levels between the US and Chinese militaries remained smooth. China is open to talks, but they must be held on the basis of equality and mutual respect.

Chinese Lieutenant General He Lei had told us that Li would not meet Austin because the US ruled out lifting secondary sanctions it placed on the general in 2018. Li, then the equipment development chief of China’s top military body, was sanctioned because he bought fighter jets and missile equipment from Russia’s main arms exporter, Rosoboronexport. The US said the state-owned firm had violated its law that bans arms proliferation to Syria, Iran and North Korea.

People’s Liberation Army officers in the Chinese delegation said that showed the US lacked sincerity.

Another flashpoint was unsafe intercepts in waters near China.