Foreign and Military Affairs

China attaches more importance to military ties

By Li Xiaokun (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-06-01 08:00

BEIJING - China has made subtle but meaningful changes to its multilateral diplomacy this year, attaching more importance to military interaction and cooling down the South China Sea issue, Chinese diplomatic observers said.

And now Beijing is taking the unprecedented step of raising a concrete demand for developing nations to play a greater role in the global financial system, rather than just calling for it, they said.

"Although there is a very low possibility that China or another developing nation such as India would get the IMF chairmanship, it is likely that they could get the post of first deputy president," said Shen Dingli, director of the Center for American Studies at Shanghai-based Fudan University.

Beijing has been calling for the reshaping of the global financial system since the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2008. But it recently took the more direct measure of uniting with fellow BRICS members Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa to criticize European Union officials for suggesting that the next head of the International Monetary Fund should be a European, and demanded that the new IMF leader represent developing nations' interests.

Shi Yinhong, an expert on global politics at the Renmin University of China, said Beijing has adopted a low profile on territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

China has insisted that related issues should be resolved through peaceful discussion at a bilateral level and rejected the intervention of outside powers.

Su Hao, head of the Strategy and Conflict Management Research Center at China Foreign Affairs University, said the changes were also reflected in China's much expanded military diplomacy.

China will send Defense Minister Liang Guanglie to the Shangri-La Dialogue, an Asian regional security forum, for the first time this week in Singapore, while Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the People's Liberation Army Wei Fenghe will arrive in Indonesia several days later, leading a delegation to a security policy meeting under the ASEAN Regional Forum.

"Liang's attendance is an example that Beijing is increasingly willing to take part in multilateral military activities," Su said.

As for the highlight of China's diplomatic activity in the latter half of this year, the experts looked ahead to the East Asia Summit (EAS), which the US President Barack Obama will attend for the first time.

Su said nations in the region should remain alert to the possibility that their influence may be diluted by members from outside East Asia.

"Actually for the East Asia mechanism, the larger it is, perhaps the less effect it will have," Shi Yinhong said.

Shen Dingli said there may be subtle competitiveness between China and the US at the summit.

"It will be a challenge for Beijing. Washington has been revamping its soft power by correcting the mistakes made in the Iraq War, and now China's territorial disputes with other nations in the region gives it a reason to come back," he said.

However, China should remain confident regarding cooperation and healthy competitiveness in the region with the US, Shen said.

Wang Jiabao contributed to this story.