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Amber Wang

The American delegation to the Xiangshan Forum, a major Chinese security conference in Beijing, will be led by Cynthia “Xanthi” Carras, the principal director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia at the Department of Defence, the South China Morning Post has learned.
This year’s Xiangshan Forum, the 13th edition of the event, will be held in Beijing from next Tuesday to Thursday.
Carras’ attendance marks a higher level of American participation than last year, when Washington sent a defence attaché from the US embassy in Beijing.
The forum is often seen as Beijing’s counterpart to the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Asia’s premier security forum.
It comes weeks before Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to pay a state visit to Washington, following US President Donald Trump’s trip to China in May, when the two sides sought to stabilise bilateral relations.




At the forum’s opening ceremony on Wednesday, Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun is expected to deliver a keynote speech on China’s security position.
It remains unclear whether higher-level Chinese officials will attend this year’s edition, which marks the 20th year since the forum launched in 2006.
Dong skipped the Shangri-La Dialogue this year for the second year in a row. Beijing has viewed the Singapore gathering as Western-led, amid long-standing criticism of mainland China’s positions on issues including the South China Sea and Taiwan.
Carras attended the Xiangshan Forum in 2023.
A year later, the US sent a higher-ranking official, Michael Chase, the US deputy assistant secretary of defence for China, Taiwan and Mongolia.
Carras’ attendance comes as Sino-US military relations appear to have improved.
The two countries ended a two-year hiatus in theatre-level military contact, with a meeting earlier this month in Canada between the senior People’s Liberation Army commander overseeing the Taiwan Strait and his US Pacific counterpart.
Chinese General Yang Zhibin, commander of the Eastern Theatre Command, and US Admiral Samuel Paparo met for the first time at the Indo-Pacific Chiefs of Defence Conference in Victoria, British Columbia.
The PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command has the main responsibility for operations facing Taiwan, the East China Sea and Japan.
Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary.
Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-ruled island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.
At this year’s forum, organisers have scheduled an event at which Chinese and American representatives will discuss “constructive strategic stability” in Sino-US relations.


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Cynthia ‘Xanthi’ Carras to attend Beijing’s largest annual high-level security and defence conference


Cynthia ‘Xanthi’ Carras to attend Beijing’s largest annual high-level security and defence conference.


.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Cynthia ‘Xanthi’ Carras to attend Beijing’s largest annual high-level security and defence conference

Cynthia ‘Xanthi’ Carras to attend Beijing’s largest annual high-level security and defence conference