By Philip Yang
Shangri-La is the name given to an imagined paradise in the Himalayas in the 1933 book Lost Horizon by James Hilton. The world at that time was suffering the effects of war and prejudice. The book represented a Western dream of Oriental mysticism and eternal peace.
Entering the 21st century, European nations had learned their lesson from the wars, and the EU, with its transcendence of political and ethnic borders, was more closely integrated. The US, however, was falling deeper and deeper into the American Dream of hegemonic power, while Asia, although experiencing a period of unprecedented economic prosperity, found itself in a fragile military race.
The first Shangri-La Dialogue was organized in the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore in 2002 by the UK-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. This year, the fourth Shangri-La Dialogue was held from June 3 to June 5 in Singapore.
The reason these dialogues command so much international attention is that apart from three communist states -- North Korea, China and Vietnam -- more than 20 countries in the Asia-Pacific region sent their defense ministers to the meeting, together with a small number of experts on strategic security, making the Shangri-La Dialogue one of the most senior-level meetings on military security in the Asia-Pacific region. At the same time, the heads of military security in each country held several bilateral top-level meetings outside of the Shangri-La Dialogue to discuss bilateral military- and security-related issues.
The three main security issues in Asia are the North Korean nuclear issue, the terrorist threat and China's military rise. This Shangri-La meeting also focused on these three issues. On the North Korean nuclear issue, most of the discussions were on the stalled six-way talks and the possibility that the Proliferation Security Initiative will prevent North Korea from obtaining raw materials.
On anti-terrorism precautions, concerns were raised by Southeast Asian nations over the efficiency of the different countries' cooperation mechanisms and maritime security. On the issue of China's military, the concern was over China's regional role and the Sino-Japanese relationship.
With regard to China's military rise, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said that no country is threatening China, and he therefore questioned the reasoning behind China's military development and missile deployments.
He also mentioned that countries everywhere would benefit from a stable and developing China.
When Singapore's former ambassador to the UN asked if it would be a correct description if a newspaper headline the next day read "US issues warning over China's military development," Rumsfeld said "of course not," because he was not opposing China's strategy.
Instead, he said he felt he had to point out the more worrying aspects of China's military development.
At the least, Rumsfeld's speech pointed out that as the war on terrorism enters its final stages and earlier East Asian structural issues and the Sino-US relationship resurface, interaction between Washington and Beijing may once again become that of strategic competitors.
In addition, Japan's growing role in regional security and its closer cooperation with the US has already resulted in Chinese President Hu Jintao warning Japan that the Yasukuni shrine, Japanese history textbooks and Taiwan are three major issues in the Sino-Japanese relationship.
These are all hints that a power struggle is about to break out between the major East Asian powers.
Taiwan's treatment at the Shangri-La Dialogue deteriorates with each meeting.At the previous meeting, both military and government officials from Taiwan participated, but -- perhaps due to the scope and level of Chinese protests -- Taiwan's absence from the third dialogue last year meant that only Taiwanese academics were invited to participate this year, and then only in the capacity of guests and not representatives of the nation.
Such attitudes toward Taiwan's participation in a dialogue about security and military issues in the Asia-Pacific are in fact common. The main reason for this is -- apart from the issue of Beijing's pressure and diplomacy -- that everyone has expectations in relation to Beijing's role and participation. As a result, the organizers often place restrictions on themselves.
The fact is that China would not send top level officials to the Shangri-La Dialogue even if Taiwan did not participate, because it understands that doing so would make it a common target. Since Beijing puts its army under the command of the party, it does not want to let senior military leaders have too much international exposure.
In his address, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong pointed out that the Sept. 11 attacks had changed US foreign policy and security policies, and that US military unilateralism has divided and shaken the world.
But when the Berlin Wall fell on Nov. 9, 1989, changing the world, European countries relied on multilateral exchanges and trade integration to let East European countries join the EU.
Finding answers to the questions of how Asian countries should deal with the lessons of history and how the two sides of the Taiwan Strait should maintain peace and stability is not only the responsibility of decision-makers, it would also bring us to the Shangri-La we are all dreaming about.
