China sent a lower-level military delegation to Asia's premier defense summit in Singapore for a second consecutive year, prompting Germany's top general to warn Saturday that Beijing is squandering a critical dialogue opportunity during what he called the most 'dangerous times' of his 42-year career.
General Carsten Breuer, Germany's chief of defense, made the remarks at a media roundtable on the sidelines of the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue. His frustration was blunt. 'I strongly recommend to use each and every dialog forum to discuss with each other and to compare not only notes but also opinions,' Breuer said, according to CNBC. Beijing's defense minister, Dong Jun, skipped the conference entirely.
In his place, Major General Meng Xiangqing from the People's Liberation Army National Defence University led the Chinese delegation. That choice matters. A university official carries different weight than a defense minister.
The message sent was one of disengagement. The stakes are concrete. U.S.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth had already set a confrontational tone earlier Saturday. Hegseth stated that 'no state, including China, can impose its hegemony and hold the security or prosperity of our nation and our allies in question.' The American opening salvo went unanswered at the ministerial level. No Chinese counterpart stepped to the podium to respond directly.
Breuer did confirm that dialogue continues with the Chinese delegation on the ground. 'But of course, it would be better to have it on a higher level,' he added. He described the existing conversations as genuine exchanges, not mere position statements. 'You have your national positions, and this is clear, but also within those national positions, you can explain, and this is what we are doing, especially on the military side,' the German general relayed. Not everyone found the reduced Chinese presence acceptable.
Philippines national defense secretary Gilberto Teodoro offered a starkly different assessment. 'I feel that as a value proposition, their presence here is reduced to a minimum...which is to promote the party line rather than to engage constructively,' Teodoro told CNBC. He was blunt about the consequences for Manila: 'So, insofar as I'm concerned, it's no major loss for me.'
That comment lands with weight in the South China Sea. The Philippines and China have clashed repeatedly over contested waters, with Manila relying heavily on its mutual defense treaty with Washington. A Chinese delegation that Teodoro sees as merely reciting talking points does nothing to ease tensions in one of the world's most volatile maritime regions.
Tempers were already frayed before the forum began. Beijing's military maneuvers near Taiwan and its coast guard operations in the South China Sea have kept regional defense planners on edge. The Shangri-La Dialogue, organized annually by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, has historically served as a venue for back-channel conversations that can defuse crises before they spiral.
China's foreign minister and defense minister have used past editions to deliver major policy addresses. Their absence removes a pressure valve. Breuer's framing of the current era as uniquely perilous underscored the anxiety. 'In my 42 years as a soldier, I've never experienced such dangerous times like we are living in the world as today,' he warned.
He tied the comment directly to China's decision to not send a minister, framing it as a forfeited opportunity when the world is 'contested.'
The mixed European-Asian reaction reveals a split in how different regions interpret Beijing's posture. Germany still seeks engagement and views every missed dialogue as a loss. For frontline states like the Philippines, the absence of a senior Chinese official simply confirms a pre-existing assessment: that Beijing is not interested in genuine negotiation on territorial disputes.
What this actually means for your family. The policy says one thing. The reality says another.
The absence of top-level Chinese defense officials from a forum designed to prevent miscalculation raises the risk that a naval collision or air intercept goes wrong without a channel for rapid de-escalation. For families in Manila, Taipei, Tokyo, and increasingly Berlin—where policymakers now view Indo-Pacific stability as directly tied to European security—that translates into a higher probability of conflict disrupting trade routes that carry everything from semiconductors to everyday consumer goods. Military-to-military communication at senior levels is not ceremonial. airspace, Beijing severed several communication hotlines with the Pentagon.
Restoring those links took months of quiet diplomacy. The Shangri-La Dialogue offers a rare neutral venue where such links can be rebuilt on the sidelines without appearing to concede anything publicly. China's choice to skip the top table leaves those channels colder.
The broader European context adds another layer. Germany has been recalibrating its own defense posture after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, while simultaneously navigating its economic dependency on Chinese trade. Breuer's public criticism of Beijing represents a shift in Berlin's tone—historically cautious German defense officials do not often use the word 'dangerous' to describe another major power's diplomatic choices in an Asian forum.
Both sides claim victory. Here are the numbers. China maintains active high-level military dialogue with several Southeast Asian nations through bilateral channels.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has its own defense ministerial meeting, which Chinese officials regularly attend. Beijing can argue that skipping the Shangri-La Dialogue does not represent a blanket refusal to talk. The counter-argument, voiced by Breuer and Teodoro, is that avoiding the main multilateral venue where rivals and allies all sit in the same room degrades the overall security architecture.
The specific number: two consecutive years without a Chinese defense minister at Shangri-La, a forum that has run annually since 2002. Major General Meng Xiangqing has long experience in academic military circles. He is not an unknown figure.
But academic credentials do not carry the decision-making authority of a sitting defense minister. Secretary of War calls out a nation by name and that nation's top defense official does not show up, the asymmetry becomes the story. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and BRICS forums offer Beijing alternative stages for shaping global security narratives, but neither matches the Shangri-La Dialogue's concentration of Indo-Pacific defense chiefs.
China's decision to downgrade its presence aligns with a broader pattern of selective engagement—Beijing chooses which tables to sit at, and those choices signal priorities. Teodoro's dismissal—'no major loss'—reflects a hardening position among Southeast Asian capitals that have grown tired of what they view as Beijing's performative diplomacy. His government has been particularly vocal since 2023 incidents involving Chinese maritime militia vessels and Philippine supply boats at Second Thomas Shoal.
For Manila, the value proposition of Chinese dialogue has dropped sharply. The danger Breuer referenced is not abstract. Miscalculation risks compound when communication thins.
The South China Sea alone sees thousands of military and paramilitary vessel encounters annually. Without consistent senior-level contact, the odds increase that a captain's split-second decision in international waters escalates into a political crisis no one intended. Why It Matters:
The Shangri-La Dialogue is one of the few remaining venues where American, Chinese, and Southeast Asian defense chiefs can hold unscripted, private conversations without cameras present. China's second consecutive ministerial no-show erodes the forum's capacity to serve as a circuit breaker during future crises—whether over Taiwan, the South China Sea, or a military accident no one planned. For working families whose supply chains, fuel prices, and regional stability depend on open maritime trade lanes, degraded communication between the world's two largest militaries represents a direct, if slow-burning, economic threat.
Key takeaways from the 2026 Shangri-La Dialogue so far:
- China skipped sending a defense minister for the second year, relying on a military academic to represent its position in Singapore. - Germany's top general called the absence 'dangerous' and warned the world is in its most contested state he has seen in 42 years. - The Philippines dismissed China's low-level participation as scripted party-line promotion rather than genuine engagement. Secretary of War directly accused Beijing of hegemonic ambitions, with no Chinese minister present to respond. officials and allied defense chiefs. The immediate test is whether any substantive communication emerges from lower-level Chinese delegates in closed-door sessions.
The larger question extends beyond the weekend: whether Beijing recalibrates its engagement strategy before the next major multilateral defense summit, or whether the two-year gap becomes a permanent withdrawal from what has been Asia's most important security forum for over two decades. A specific milestone to watch is the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting-Plus later this year, where Beijing's attendance level will confirm whether the Shangri-La downgrade was venue-specific or part of a wider strategic retreat from multilateral defense diplomacy.
Key Takeaways
— - China's defense minister skipped the Shangri-La Dialogue for the second straight year, sending a military academic instead.
— - Germany's top general called the world's security environment the most dangerous he has seen in 42 years of service.
— - The Philippines dismissed China's low-level delegation as promoting a party line rather than engaging constructively.
— - No Chinese defense minister means the primary crisis communication channel between Beijing and Washington's top defense official remained closed at the forum.
Source: CNBC
