China defense minister calls for ‘negotiation’ to end Ukraine, Gaza wars

Chinese army Lieutenant General He Lei (3rd L) attends a forum on The Right Way for China and United States to Get Along during the 11th Xiangshan Forum at the Beijing International Convention Center on September 13, 2024.  (AFP)

BEIJING – Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun said Friday that “negotiation” was the only solution to conflicts such as the wars in Gaza and Ukraine as he addressed a global gathering of military officials in Beijing.

Top military representatives from Russia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Singapore, Iran and Germany are among more than 500 delegates in Beijing for the Xiangshan Forum, dubbed China’s answer to the annual Shangri-La meeting in Singapore.

The three-day forum comes as Beijing increasingly presents itself as a mediator in global conflicts, including by sending envoys to the Middle East, brokering a temporary ceasefire in north Myanmar and last year, facilitating a historic rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran. On Ukraine and Israel-Palestine, China presents itself as a more neutral actor than the United States.

Dong told the opening ceremony: “To resolve hotspot issues such as the crisis in Ukraine and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, promoting peace and negotiation is the only way out.”

“There is no winner in war and conflict, and confrontation leads nowhere,” Dong said.

“The more acute the conflict, the more we cannot give up dialogue and consultation. The end of any conflict is reconciliation,” he added, calling on all countries to promote “peaceful development and inclusive governance”.

Topics for discussion at the forum include US-China relations, security in Europe and Asia, and the challenges of defence in a multipolar world.

In his speech, Dong urged against “the proliferation of national security concepts” to ensure “new technologies can better benefit the whole mankind” — a likely reference to the United States’s efforts to block Beijing’s access to advanced technology.

“At a time of high global security risks and increased instability and unpredictability, the responsibility for building the defence and security capacity of all countries is enormous,” Dong said.

Beijing, he added, “is willing to work with all parties to strengthen strategic alignment, deepen defence consultations, discuss the signing of bilateral and multilateral agreements on defence cooperation”.

Flashpoints

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Chase is attending the forum just a few days after top Washington and Beijing commanders held their first talks.

Approached by AFP at the forum, he declined to comment.

Washington and Beijing remain at odds on issues from trade to the status of self-ruled Taiwan and China’s increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions.

But they have sought to re-establish regular military-to-military talks in a bid to prevent flashpoint disputes from escalating.

One such flashpoint is the South China Sea, where Chinese vessels have engaged in a series of high-profile confrontations with Philippine ships in recent months.

China claims almost all of the economically vital body of water despite competing claims from other countries and an international court ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

Senior military official Lieutenant General He Lei told journalists at the forum on Thursday that China would “crush” any foreign incursion into its sovereign territory, including in the South China Sea.

Speaking on Friday during a discussion panel, He accused Washington of being “afraid that someone else will replace them” as the global superpower.

“China does absolutely not have the wild ambition to replace them in dominating the world,” he added.

“China’s development is by no means aimed at surpassing or replacing anyone,” he said.