China’s top security conference about ‘clarifying positions’ – not solutions, experts say

Beijing is expected to seek to further military communication with Washington on thorny issues like the South China Sea as it hosts an coming security forum, but analysts expect tensions to persist.

The three-day Xiangshan Forum – China’s premier annual security conference which is seen as Beijing’s answer to the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore – will be held in Beijing from Thursday to Saturday.

According to the Chinese defence ministry and state media, the forum will be attended by more than 700 participants and official delegations from more than 90 countries, including defence ministers and chiefs of general staff.

“The number and level of participants has exceeded all previous years with increasingly wider representation,” the defence ministry said last month.