What Xiangshan's progress tells us about Chinese power

Forum's feisty debates and growing reach reflect a confident China’s convening power.

- William Choong

(From left) Armenia's Defence Minister Suren Papikyan, Cambodia's Defence Minister Tea Seiha, Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun, Vietnam's National Defence Minister Phan Van Giang and Azerbaijan's Defence Minister Zakir Hasanov attending the Xiangshan Forum in Beijing on Sept 18.

(PHOTO: REUTERS)

Fierce rhetorical clashes between American and Chinese scholars. A walkout by the Ukrainian defence attache and other officials as a Russian minister spoke. Participants swarming a Japanese professor with provocative questions over the country’s handling of its wartime history.

These could well have happened at the Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD), an annual defence ministerial summit held in Singapore. But the incidents took place at the recent Xiangshan Forum in Beijing — China’s counterpoint to the SLD.

The animated exchanges are noteworthy in view of Xiangshan’s reputation for being staid and scripted, a pale shadow of the SLD in the articulation of ideas and views in the defence and security sphere. But now in its 12th edition, the Xiangshan Forum could be said to have matured and is hitting its stride at just the right time for China in its rivalry with the US.

It allows China to step into the breach at a time when Washington is causing consternation around the world with its controversial tariffs and retreat from its roles of security guarantor and world’s largest importer.

Xiangshan’s steady emergence showcases China’s convening power while at the same time enabling it to sell its vision abroad, in particular the Global South. To be sure, Xiangshan is only one of several other platforms to achieve these goals — there is the recent military parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory against the Japanese in 1945, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meetings and the holding of major economic fora such as the Boao Forum for Asia.