yuyuan tantian丨why is the scene of military officers from more than 100 countries gathering only seen in china?
2024-09-20
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this article is transferred from [yuyuan tantian];
in recent days, the 11th beijing xiangshan forum was held. what attracted the most attention in this forum was that military officers and representatives from more than 100 countries and regions in the world gathered at the venue.
many people mentioned that this is a scene that can only be seen in china.
over the past year, the ukrainian crisis and the israeli-palestinian conflict have continued, and the global security situation has become more complicated. but even under such circumstances, the number and level of guests attending the xiangshan forum this year have set a new record compared with previous years.
although the representatives of these countries wear different military uniforms, speak different languages and hold different positions, they can all discuss one topic in china - peace.
why china?
mr. tan observed two details at the forum that are worth elaborating on.
at the meeting, mr. tan saw representatives from many conflict-related parties including the united states, russia, ukraine, and israel.
people familiar with the matter told mr. tan that the reason these countries came to attend the forum was because they believed that the xiangshan forum was a very good opportunity to discuss issues that they were concerned about.
the premise of communication is understanding. sino-us relations are the starting point for observing this detail.
china-us relations were involved in many aspects of this forum and were also the focus of attention of all participating countries.
in the past few days, foreign media such as voice of america (voa) have been hyping up the argument that china is using its home diplomatic advantage to promote its own position, but the united states is not interested in this.
is this really the case?
at the xiangshan forum, sino-us relations were discussed in "high-level interviews" and "parallel group meetings." americans attended every meeting.
li shuyin, a researcher at the academy of military sciences, told tan zhu:
the format of the "high-end interview" is that a host interviews two guests, one from china and one from the united states, at the same time. the purpose of this design is to allow both china and the united states to fully explain their different views on sino-us relations from their respective perspectives, which is a debate of concepts.
the american guest attending the "high-level interview: china-us relations" was hua ziqiang, former u.s. deputy assistant secretary of state.
china and the united states have different views on how to maintain a long-term and sustainable sino-us relationship. should we start from the cognition of sino-us relations or from specific issues? in this regard, china and the united states launched a discussion.
at the meeting, hua ziqiang said in chinese, "listen to what he says and watch what he does."
after hearing hua ziqiang quote this idiom, chinese scholars also responded with an english proverb, "talk the talk, walk the walk" (talk the talk, walk the walk).
from hua ziqiang's speech, we can see that americans often have different understandings from us on how to implement the us's commitments to china. a full discussion on this issue at the xiangshan forum is an opportunity to clarify these issues.
regarding the "parallel group meetings" on the other side, li shuyin pointed out that the "parallel group meetings" focus on more specific issues, that is, how to implement the consensus reached by the leaders of china and the united states in the san francisco meeting through concrete actions.
in the past month, the united states has continued to encourage its allies to expand security conflicts with china at sea, and has carried out cognitive operations on issues such as the so-called "co-defense" of taiwan, interfering in china's internal affairs. obviously, the united states' statements at the san francisco meeting, such as "not seeking to oppose china by strengthening alliances, not supporting 'taiwan independence', and not intending to conflict with china," have not been implemented.
mr. tan noted that the american experts attending the parallel analysis meeting included: former deputy assistant secretary of defense chancellor david s. schmidt, senior defense analyst at the rand corporation, derek grossman, and executive vice president of the center for international policy, matthew das.
what these people have in common is that they all play important roles in the us government and think tank system, and are responsible for making recommendations on specific policies related to china. therefore, they all have a relatively good understanding of china.
for example, sanders schmidt served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for china affairs at the u.s. department of defense from 2019 to 2021.
he mentioned that the chinese and us militaries can activate some of the past dialogue mechanisms and find solutions to problems through dialogue. this is precisely the focus of the us military in developing military relations with china in the past two years.
in addition to the experts, the us military officer who attended the meeting this time was the new deputy assistant secretary of defense, michael chase. compared with the us military officer who attended the meeting last year, chase not only has a higher rank, but also has a deeper understanding of china:
chen simao once came to china to study and learn chinese. after serving as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for chinese affairs, chen simao also participated in the 17th china-us defense department working meeting at the beginning of this year.
understanding is the basis for effective communication between both parties and the key to ensuring that communication can continue to go deeper and more practical.
like china-us relations, the forum also provides an opportunity for different countries in different regions to understand each other.
in the theme of this forum, region is the most frequently appearing keyword, including asia-pacific, northeast asia, asean, middle east, africa, etc.
li shuyin told tan zhu that international and regional hot issues, cutting-edge issues, including some sensitive issues, can be discussed at the xiangshan forum. we also invite the two sides of the conflict between palestine and israel, russia and ukraine to communicate and have dialogues in the same parallel group meeting.
to understand this phenomenon, we can start with what china itself does.
during the forum's meeting, there was a parallel group meeting to discuss the security of the asia-pacific region, which is closely related to the security of china's surrounding areas.
a noteworthy detail is that fu ying, former vice foreign minister of china, who personally participated in the entire diplomatic handling process of the huangyan island incident in 2012, was the moderator of this group meeting.
to promote the resolution of a new round of south china sea issues, historical experience can provide a reference.
in recent days, the deputy minister of foreign affairs of the philippines held a meeting of heads of delegations of the china-philippines bilateral consultation mechanism on the south china sea issue in beijing. at the same time, china and asean countries also held the 22nd senior officials meeting on the implementation of the declaration on the conduct of parties in the south china sea, which took the negotiation of the code of conduct in the south china sea one step further.
the more sensitive the military security issue is, the more communication and dialogue need to play a role, and the more it is necessary to fully respect the demands of all parties and propose realistic and feasible solutions to the problem.
at the opening ceremony of the xiangshan forum, chinese defense minister dong jun left a deep impression on many people by mentioning the word "equality" five times in 70 seconds.
it is precisely because china insists that all countries, regardless of size, strength or weakness, have an equal right to speak out that more and more countries are coming to the xiangshan forum to participate in international security dialogues.
in this process, the issues discussed at the xiangshan forum are also extending in a more cutting-edge and in-depth direction.
mr. tan learned that another design of this forum is that we will try to open all venues, large and small, as much as possible.
the xiangshan forum is looking to the future with an attitude of seeking consensus through open and equal dialogue and cooperation and promoting the building of a fair and effective security governance mechanism.
this is also the attitude of the chinese military towards the world.
