Bringing Shangri-La Back to Earth

Dean Cheng / June 08, 2010

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was at the Shangri-La Dialogue (aka the Asia Security Summit), and according to The Washington Post, he has engaged in sharp exchanges with the Chinese participants. Who was Gates’ interlocutor at Shangri-La? None other than People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Major General Zhu Chenghu, who bluntly stated that “You, the Americans, are taking China as the enemy.”

What is striking is that General Zhu is the same officer who, in 2005, broached the idea that China’s nuclear “no first use” policy might not apply if China was attacked with conventional weapons.

At the time, this statement, suggesting that China’s “no first use” policy was not quite as absolute as so often presented, aroused quite a bit of reaction. American arms control experts rushed to take comfort from Chinese statements that Zhu was speaking only from a personal perspective, and that his views were not representative. Others noted that Zhu was supposedly reprimanded—surely his position did not receive official support? (more…)