US and Chinese Delegates Clash at the Xiangshan Forum
An everything, everywhere, all at once moment for nationalist chauvinism.
Most years, I let the Xiangshan Forum pass without commenting on it.
If you haven’t heard of the Xiangshan Forum, it’s a Track 1.5 (quasi-official) meeting that China convenes to talk about defense and security issues. Representatives from 100 countries were in attendance this year, making it the largest multilateral defense forum in the world.
My co-host Matt Duss attended it last year, and I’ve been to countless meetings like it.1
East Asia’s shifting political order consists of many such confabs, but the ones that are US-centric (APEC, EAS) have a vague feeling of decay, even uselessness. The newer ones—which are China-centric—are increasingly part of the everyday life of East Asian elites but, like all things China, are viewed as vaguely menacing in the West. If APEC is a Hummer, then the Xiangshan Forum is a BYD.
This year’s Xiangshan Forum, held from September 17-19, was different from other elite talk shops in two respects. One is that some media reported much-heightened friction between the US and Chinese delegations. The other is that China was using the Xiangshan Forum to advance its “Global Governance Initiative” concept, which had just been launched at another Sino-centric forum, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
What’s Inside:
The meaning of China’s “Global Governance Initiative”
Lost technocrats and America’s insecure nationalism
Signs of Chinese chauvinism
The Treaty of San Francisco
Contesting the World War II story as a terrain for international order today