China’s Defense Chief Turns Down Temperature on Tensions With U.S.
Speech by Adm. Dong Jun echoes remarks by U.S.’s Austin playing down prospect of war, but hot spots remain
SINGAPORE—China’s defense minister sought to assuage fears of confrontation between the Chinese and American militaries a day after the U.S. defense chief did the same, part of an effort to manage tensions between the two global powers in a turbulent environment.
He also warned Washington against testing Beijing’s limits on its core interests, in a sign of how delicate and tentative the rapprochement remains.
In a Sunday speech to a security forum in Singapore, Adm. Dong Jun nodded to tensions between to the two militaries in arguing for increased exchange and cooperation.
“We believe that it’s precisely because the two militaries have differences that we need to communicate more,” Dong told the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual gathering of defense officials. “Despite our different paths, we shouldn’t engage in confrontation with each other.”
Dong’s speech came the day after U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the dialogue that Washington doesn’t seek a contentious relationship with Beijing, and that a war with China is neither imminent nor unavoidable.
Ahead of the dialogue, Austin and Dong spoke face-to-face for the first time in a 75-minute meeting on Friday, when they reaffirmed plans to reopen direct lines of communication.
Tensions between the U.S. and China have flared as both powers criticized each other’s military activities around the island democracy of Taiwan and in the South China Sea, where Beijing has asserted sovereignty claims.
Communication between the two militaries had also lapsed in recent years, with Beijing saying that an emergency hotline gave the U.S. cover to engage in provocative military operations in China’s backyard.
The resumption of high-level military exchanges between the U.S. and China dovetails with broader efforts by both governments to step up dialogue over contentious issues such as trade and technological competition.
Analysts say both Washington and Beijing welcome the calming of tensions while each grapples with other priorities—with the U.S. preoccupied with the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, while China struggles with tepid economic growth and corruption in its military ranks.
Dong stressed that Beijing’s willingness to engage the U.S. wasn’t an invitation to undermine Chinese interests.
The Chinese defense minister devoted substantive passages of his Sunday speech to expounding on Beijing’s grievances against Washington, including American political and military cooperation with Taiwan and the Philippines, though in these instances, Dong avoided directly naming the U.S.
Describing the Taiwan issue as “the most core of China’s core interests,” Dong criticized “external interfering forces” for providing diplomatic support to Taipei and selling arms to the island. He said such maneuvers were designed to embolden Taiwanese independence elements and “use Taiwan to contain China.”
Dong also blamed “external forces” for instigating China’s recent spat with the Philippines over Second Thomas Shoal, a disputed reef in the South China Sea, and denounced the recent deployment of a new U.S. missile system in the Philippines during joint military drills.
In recent months, Chinese vessels have become increasingly aggressive in disrupting missions to supply a military detachment that the Philippines keeps stationed on Second Thomas Shoal, which Beijing refers to as Ren’ai Jiao. The U.S. has repeatedly warned that an “armed attack” on Philippine vessels would invoke their mutual defense pact.
Offering an apparent response to Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who on Friday condemned what he called “illegal, coercive, aggressive” actions against his country’s sovereignty, Dong restated China’s claim that the Philippines provoked the standoff by reneging on an agreement with Beijing over resupply missions to Second Thomas Shoal.
The minister defended Chinese activities around the reef as lawful and appropriate, and urged relevant countries to desist and defuse the dispute through dialogue.
“The Chinese side has exercised sufficient restraint in the face of the provocations,” Dong said. “But there are limits to this.”
The Chinese defense minister nodded to concerns in the U.S. and Europe about Beijing’s support for Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine.
Dong said China isn’t selling weapons to either side of the Ukraine war. He nodded to Beijing’s recent tightening of export controls on goods with potential military applications in portraying China as an agent of peace.
Dong’s speech capped the Chinese delegation’s forward-leaning messaging at the three-day dialogue. Chinese military officials posed pointed questions to speakers who criticized Beijing, while amplifying their own government’s stances on security matters and regional disputes.
Chinese delegates also convened a series of media briefings on the sidelines, where they employed strident rhetoric against the U.S., accusing Washington of stoking discord in the Asia-Pacific, meddling in regional disputes and corralling allies and partners to suppress China.
Soon after Marcos’s speech on Friday evening, one Chinese general arranged a late-night briefing to deliver a point-by-point rebuttal to the Philippine president’s remarks on maritime tensions and perceived infringements of Philippine sovereignty. Another Chinese general held a similar briefing on Saturday to criticize what he called U.S. efforts to forge military alliances to check China and uphold American hegemony.
At the same time, the Chinese delegation also tried to emphasize Beijing’s desire for dialogue—as long as China’s bottom lines, particularly its sovereignty claims over Taiwan and the South China Sea, weren’t breached.
In a Friday briefing, a Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman characterized Austin and Dong’s meeting as “positive, practical and constructive,” and a valuable face-to-face interaction between senior officials. When a reporter asked about the main points of disagreement during the meeting, the spokesman countered: “Your question is quite negative.”
Some participants at the dialogue sensed that Beijing was eager to avoid unnecessarily aggravating tensions and fueling anti-China sentiment in Washington, which could intensify in the run-up to the U.S. presidential elections. “It’s quite clear that they want to keep things calm ahead of November,” said an Asian diplomat who attended the dialogue.
One delegate picked up on the milder atmospherics between the U.S. and China, and asked Austin about it after his Saturday speech.
With China, “we want a relationship that’s based upon competition, and not a contentious relationship,” Austin replied. “A fight with China is neither imminent, in my view, or unavoidable.”
Senior Col. Zhang Chi, an associate professor at China’s National Defense University, noted that Austin’s speech at this year’s dialogue marked an “obvious improvement” from his 2023 remarks, where the defense secretary had name-checked China several times and “hyped up” sensitive issues around Taiwan and the South China Sea.
“You can interpret this as a show of goodwill, and you can also interpret it as a reflection of objective reality,” Zhang said in an interview, characterizing the milder tone as reflective of efforts by both militaries to “stop the decline and stabilize” their relationship.