Singapore, 6 Jun (ZXS) -- On 3 June local time, US Secretary of Defense Austin delivered a speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue. A number of Chinese and foreign experts and scholars attending the meeting pointed out in interviews that the China-related content in the speech only talked about details but did not talk about the premise of US suppression, and it was very unreasonable to say one thing and do another on sensitive issues such as the Taiwan issue.
Unsurprisingly "old-fashioned"
Zhao Xiaozhuo, a researcher at the War Research Institute of the Academy of Military Sciences, who has participated in the "incense meeting" many times, said that the overall tone of the US defense secretary's speech was unexpected, and "basically everything that should be said has been said." "The Shangri-La Dialogue has gradually become a stage for the U.S. Secretary of Defense to elaborate on the U.S. regional security strategy, with a different focus basically every year."
Zhou Bo, a researcher at the Center for Strategic and Security Studies at Tsinghua University, said that during the Shangri-La Dialogue, the US defense secretary always spoke in the same way, "talking about the values of the US side and the importance of the alliance, and then sorting out everything the US has done in the region in the past year."
Although China was not mentioned in the first half of the speech, when the conversation turned to sensitive issues such as the South China Sea and Taiwan, the China-related content of Austin's speech still accounted for a relatively large proportion, and the accusations against China were not concealed.
Zhao Xiaozhuo believes that China attaches great importance to the relations between the two militaries and has made great efforts in the past few years. Many issues between China and the United States can be discussed through dialogue, but the premise of dialogue is that the United States stops suppressing China, especially on the Taiwan issue, and stops interfering in China's internal affairs.
"On the one hand, recognizing Taiwan as part of China, on the other hand, there are many small actions to wantonly interfere in China's internal affairs, which is definitely not the practice of a responsible big country." Zhao Xiaozhuo pointed out that we cannot talk for the sake of talking, and the purpose of talking is to solve problems. "It is unreasonable to put on a posture of repression for China to talk."
The "pot" cannot be thrown on the head of the Chinese side
Although the US defense secretary mentioned in his speech that he did not want confrontation with China, Zhao Xiaozhuo pointed out that the US defense secretary did not clarify the premise on this. "That is, the so-called 'Indo-Pacific strategy' of the United States in recent years is basically suppression, containment, and containment, and he did not talk about these contents, but talked about the details of direct contact."
Unsurprisingly, in his speech, the US defense minister "fried the cold rice" of the recent Yugoslav naval plane incident, only saying that China had "dangerous interception" of the US military plane, but said nothing about the premise that the US military plane broke into the training area of the Chinese ship formation to conduct reconnaissance.
"Dialogue cannot be completely unconditional." Zhou Bo also said that Austin "very literately" mentioned the importance of dialogue between China and the United States, but deliberately ignored the premise of dialogue. China's decision not to hold a meeting with the US side during the "incense meeting" was correct, and "the 'pot' of 'unwilling dialogue' cannot be thrown on the head of the Chinese side."
Zhao Xiaozhuo also said that this "incense meeting" will not bring much change to Sino-US relations. For a long time to come, if the United States does not change its erroneous behavior and practices, it will be difficult for the relations between the two militaries to ease significantly.
No country wants to see regional division
The theme of the US defense secretary's speech is "U.S. leadership in the Indo-Pacific region", but it also mentions supporting the centrality of ASEAN, which makes one wonder whether it is a contradiction. In the Q&A session after the speeches, there were also questions from the participants.
Although Austin said that the United States does not want to build an "Asia-Pacific version of NATO", the United States has established many alliance systems led by it, including the United States, Britain and Australia "AUKUS", the United States, Japan, India and Australia quadrilateral mechanism, the Five Eyes alliance, etc., and gradually increased the proportion of these alliance systems in the Asia-Pacific region, which has squeezed the centrality of ASEAN.
Hu Yishan, chief adviser of the Pacific Research Center in Malaysia, pointed out that observing the statement of the US defense minister, the determination of the United States to maintain a more sustained presence in the Asia-Pacific region, at least in the field of defense and security, can be seen. Over the past 20 years, due to budget cuts and other reasons, the United States has gradually reduced its alliances in the region, and now it is reviving or even opening up new military alliances.
Zhao Xiaozhuo believes that it is not that the United States does not want to establish an "Asia-Pacific version of NATO", but that it cannot establish it. The United States has been moving in this direction, building a chimeric small multilateral mechanism, and then bundling multiple mechanisms together, expanding the bilateral military alliance led by the United States in the past to a multilateral direction. "But the United States will definitely not be able to push it out, because the Asia-Pacific region is a diversified region, and the past few decades have been basically peaceful and stable, and no country wants to see the region divided, and no country is willing to choose sides between China and the United States." (End)