When Beijing was conspicuous by its absence, the Shangri La dialogue had been a vehicle for former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to warn the region about China’s military build-up and the lack of transparency in its defence policies. His successor, Robert Gates, was diplomatic this year in avoiding a verbal tirade against Beijing. The leader of the Chinese delegation, Lt. Gen. Zhang Qinsheng, was equally reasonable. He rejected the notion of a Chinese military threat to Asia, promised greater transparency in Beijing’s military policies, proposed greater regional security cooperation, and signaled his readiness to set up a hotline with the Pentagon.

While China and the US seemed eager to tone down their differences and demonstrate a measure of cordiality, the tension between Beijing and Tokyo was palpable at the conference.

Japan was represented at Shangri La this year by a full-fledged defence minister following the recent upgradation of the Japanese Defence Agency into a regular ministry. Japan is in the middle of an important domestic debate on giving greater political flexibility to the government in defining its military missions.

Japanese Defence Minister Fumio Kyuma was quite assertive in raising concerns about the North Korean nuclear proliferation and in responding to some aggressive questioning of his government’s defence policies by the Chinese participants.

Missile defence

As Russia leads the European political opposition to the controversial US plans to deploy missile defence systems, it is China that is at the forefront of campaign in Asia.

At Shangri La, Gen Zhang warned that American missile defence will destabilise Asia. US Defence Secretary Gates sought to reassure Beijing by playing down American plans to deploy new missile defence systems in cooperation with Japan and Australia. “I’m not sure why they are so worried,” Gates said. “Just as with the Russians, we would be pleased to sit down with them and talk about the capabilities and technical characteristics of this system and its limitations,” he said.

It was left to Japanese Defence Minister Kyuma to make a solid case for missile defence. Kyuma insisted that a non-nuclear Japan needs to defend itself against the threats from the nuclear armed missiles of North Korea.

For now India is a bit removed from the gathering storm over missile defence in East Asia. It is a matter of time before the rest of Asia, especially China, will begin to focus on India’s missile defence programme. India, which conducted its first missile defence test last November, is due to run it again in a modified form this month.

Private uranium

As India continues to face difficulties in implementing the civilian nuclear deal with the US, China is taking one more step to modernise its domestic nuclear industry. After tying up with major foreign nuclear vendors in France and the US to build new power reactors, Beijing is now considering the participation of foreign mining companies in developing uranium production in China.

Until recently China has focused on gaining access to foreign uranium resources, in Australia for example, to support its plans for a massive expansion of nuclear power generation. It now wants to upgrade the domestic uranium mining by attracting foreign technology and capital.

India faces huge shortages in uranium production and has no access to foreign mines until the nuclear deal with the US goes through. If it wants to maximise the exploitation of its meagre domestic uranium resources, New Delhi needs to take a leaf out of the Chinese book and end state monopoly over uranium exploration and mining.

Tiananmen politics

The 18th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party’s crackdown against the pro-democracy movement at Tiananmen Square at the heart of Beijing appears to have passed off rather quietly in China. No surprises there, given the intensity of the Beijing’s vigil against any potential protests in the first week of June every year.

In Hong Kong, where Beijing has steadily expanded its political control, the issue remains alive. A statement last month from a pro-Beijing politician saying there was no “massacre” in Tiananmen triggered protests from dissidents.

The writer is professor at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore