BEIJING: China gathered defence officials and experts from across the Asia-Pacific in Beijing on Friday for a three-day security forum intended to boost the Asian giant’s influence on the global stage.

The Xiangshan, or Fragrant Hills, conference comes as tensions rise between Washington and Beijing, the region’s two largest economic and military powers, over the latter’s construction of artificial islands in disputed South China Sea waters.

US officials have signalled they may soon send ships by the islands, challenging Chinese sovereignty claims in a strategically crucial area that hosts vital shipping lanes — and Beijing has said it would “firmly oppose” such a move.

Five other countries in the region have rival claims to parts of the South China Sea — four of them members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) — and the disputes have sometimes spilled over into confrontations as vessels from the competing countries spar over fishing grounds and resource extraction.

Beijing offered to hold joint military exercises with Asean members next year in the South China Sea, the defence ministry said on its official Sina Weibo, a Chinese version of Twitter. China already participates in military drills with several of its Southeast Asian neighbours.

The conference, the sixth of its kind, will be attended by 60 official delegations and 130 scholars, according to organisers.

It is part of China’s broader effort to increase its international influence, which has also seen the creation of the multi-billion-dollar Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

The event will give Beijing “a louder voice”, according to a comment piece in the state-run China Daily newspaper, which added that it will help correct characterisations of China as “aggressive”.

Published in Dawn, October 17th , 2015

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