China’s PLA top brass fan out across region in push analysts say aimed at reassuring Asia-Pacific neighbours

Military visits to more than half a dozen nations seen as sign of China’s push to build trust

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Chinese People's Liberation Army soldiers remove mines laid by China during the China-Vietnam conflict in the 1980s in Maguan county, Yunnan province. The PLA is stepping up diplomacy in the region. Photo: Reuters

Published: 12:15am, 13 Nov 2015Updated: 3:39pm, 16 Jan 2018

China is stepping up its military diplomacy within the region amid challenges from the United States’ pivot towards the Asia-Pacific and territorial tensions with various neighbours.

Three of the 11 members of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the supreme military decision-making body, have visited seven nations in the region this month alone, not counting President Xi Jinping’s visit to Vietnam.

General Fan Changlong, the CMC’s vice-chairman, embarked on a trip to Pakistan and India on Wednesday; Admiral Wu Shengli left on Monday for Malaysia, Indonesia and the Maldives; and Defence Minister Chang Wanquan visited Malaysia and Cambodia from November 3 as part of the Asean defence ministers’ summit.

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Xi, who is chairman of the CMC, visited Vietnam last week, accompanied by Admiral Sun Jianguo.

Zhang Mingliang, a researcher at Jinan University’s School of International Studies in Guangzhou, said the visits were made because neighbours had been very concerned about China’s military intentions.

PLA soldiers at a public performance in Hong Kong. Photo: Sam Tsang

China has been building up bases in the disputed South China Sea, triggering unease among Southeast Asian nations. Tensions in the region escalated last month, after American guided missile destroyer USS Lassen sailed near one of China’s artificial islands.

The PLA sent warships to follow the destroyer and warned the Americans that even a minor confrontation between their two militaries could develop into conflict.