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Shangri-La Dialogue: China and the US offer competing security visions for the Asia-Pacific
- Chinese defence minister accuses ‘some countries’ of launching proxy wars and leaving a trail of chaos in their wake
- ‘Bloc politics’ will destabilise the region, Li Shangfu says, a day after Lloyd Austin plays up US alliances
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China’s new defence minister used his first public address to an international audience to lash out at the US and the “rules-based international order” it champions, as well as call for common ground to avoid the “unbearable pain” a conflict between them would bring.
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At the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Sunday, General Li Shangfu accused “some countries” of intervening in another’s internal affairs and pursuing its security at the expense of others.
“Some countries intervene in the internal and regional affairs of other countries, frequently impose unilateral sanctions, threaten to use force, launch colour revolutions and proxy wars everywhere,” Li said to hundreds of defence analysts, officials and academics at Asia’s biggest security conference.
“They then leave after bringing chaos to a region, leaving behind a mess. We must not allow this to be replicated in the Asia-Pacific.”
The speech came on the last day of the conference where military officials from around the world held more than a hundred formal closed-door meetings.
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But as expected, there was not one between Li and his US counterpart, Lloyd Austin. Li had turned down an offer for talks because of secondary US sanctions over arms purchases from Russia.
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