The WSJ reports, "this weekend, defense ministers and military leaders will converge on Singapore for a summit, where China and Japan are expected to set out rival visions for the future of Asia-Pacific security. The meeting could be a “face-off” moment, as the WSJ’s Trefor Moss and Yuka Hayashi report:
The Shangri-La Dialogue, which will include speeches by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, is the first major event bringing top U.S., Chinese and other Asian military brass together since China rattled the region in recent weeks by deploying a deep-sea oil-drilling platform in waters claimed by Vietnam.Hanoi labeled the move as dangerous and provocative, and several other countries have also expressed misgivings over the deployment, which China describes as part of its normal activities within its own sovereign territory.In a curtain-raising speech on Friday night, Mr. Abe is expected to lay out what some Japanese media have termed the “Abe Doctrine”—a vision of a Japan that is more proactive in defense affairs, and that works with multinational partners, including the U.S., to bolster regional security and prosperity.…China’s Ministry of Defense confirmed on Thursday that its delegation, led by Lt. Gen. Wang Guanzhong, the Chinese military’s deputy chief of general staff, would detail President Xi Jinping‘s “new Asian security concept,” a regional security approach that rivals the one Mr. Abe envisions.Mr. Xi’s concept emphasizes Asian countries solving Asian problems—potentially cutting out the U.S.—while Mr. Abe’s proposed framework is “more inclusive” and seeks to draw in partners from outside Asia, said Tim Huxley, executive director of the International Institute of Strategic Studies-Asia, a think tank and the organizer of the event.
Besides pushback from Japan, China is also likely to face up to increasingly tense relation with the Philippines, which launched an arbitration case at the U.N. earlier this year to challenge what it regards as Beijing’s illegal claims to almost the entire South China Sea".
