BEIJING (Reuters): Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun will skip this week's Shangri-La Dialogue, after Beijing on Thursday said it is sending a delegation of "experts and scholars" from the People's Liberation Army to the security forum.
China will be represented by officials from PLA-run research institutes and the navy, defence ministry spokesperson Jiang Bin said on Thursday. Last year, Beijing had also dispatched a similar and relatively low-level delegation to the event.
This marks the second year that Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun will be skipping the event. It offers rare opportunities for interactions between Chinese and U.S. defence chiefs.
At last year's gathering in Singapore, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth called China a threat in the Indo-Pacific and urged Asian allies to step up defence spending, irking Beijing. Officials in Beijing said such comments vilified China and criticised Washington for creating tensions in the Asia-Pacific region.
Hegseth will address the forum this week.
China-U.S. military ties remain tense, with limited and cautious efforts to rebuild communication channels after a cutoff in 2022 over then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the democratically governed island of Taiwan, over which Beijing claims sovereignty.
Earlier this month, China's Ministry of Defence said it is ready to work with the U.S. side to strengthen dialogue, manage differences, build trust and dispel misgivings following a summit in Beijing.
"During U.S. President Donald Trump's visit to China, the Chinese and U.S. defence chiefs exchanged views on relations between the two militaries and issues of common concern," Jiang said on Thursday.
Hegseth and Dong were spotted chatting via interpreters at a state banquet held for Trump in Beijing.
China began participating in the Shangri-La Dialogue in 2007 and has sent its defence minister a handful of times, including in 2022, 2023 and 2024, with Defence Ministers Wei Fenghe, Li Shangfu and Dong Jun having travelled to Singapore for the event.
Wei and Li - Dong's predecessors have both been purged in a widening anti-corruption campaign in the Chinese military. The pair were both sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve earlier this month.
The Chinese delegation this year is likely to face pointed questions at the forum about how sweeping corruption purges of senior officers are affecting the military's combat readiness, foreign military attaches said. (Reporting by Shi Bu and Liz Lee; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Thomas Derpinghaus)
