PLA in Shangri La

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.

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...