China’s defence chief warns against coercion, avoids US, Japan mention

Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun has said that countries around the world should cease provocative acts and check the resurgence of regressive historical trends.

Dong made his remarks, likely to be taken as veiled criticism of Japan, on Wednesday while opening the 13th Beijing Xiangshan Forum. In a broad speech, he urged a fresh, more inclusive approach to resolving international tensions, though he offered few specifics or any direct criticisms of rivals.

“We must bear the lessons of history in mind and remain highly vigilant against all latent manifestations of hegemony, militarism and historical revisionism,” Dong said.

“We must not turn a blind eye or condone such behaviour. By rallying broad-based forces of justice, we must suppress the resurgence of historical dregs,” he added.

The forum is being held amid heightened regional tensions over Taiwan and the disputed South China Sea, as well as growing doubts about traditional US security commitments to Asia.

It also comes a week before an expected trip by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Washington to meet US President Donald Trump.

Dong’s address built on comments made earlier while meeting visiting foreign guests. In separate sit-downs with defence officials from Myanmar, Brunei, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia, as well as ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn, Dong pitched a vision of deeper military cooperation and shared security as an immediate curtain-raiser for the forum.

Over the past two decades, Beijing has carefully built the Xiangshan Forum into its primary platform for military diplomacy, positioning it as a tightly scripted alternative to Singapore’s Shangri-La Dialogue.