South China Morning Post reported (December 14) that PLA Major General Meng Xiangqing, who specialises in national security at the PLA’s National Defence University, said at at a rare media briefing organised by China's National Defence University (NDU) in Beijing on December 13, that China will not let nationalist sentiment hijack its policymaking as it continues its peaceful rise. Addressing Chinese and foreign reporters, Meng Xiangqing, also talked about military developments in China. He said “There has been a wave of populism sweeping across many countries, and I admit that such populist sentiment exists among many in the Chinese public. But the Chinese government will not be hijacked by populism – and it will steadily push forward with its peaceful development.” Another PLA scholar, Major General Xu Hui, Commandant of the NDU’s International College of Defence Studies, said the opposite sentiment had surfaced within China – that Beijing is not being assertive enough. “When international opinion suggests that China has become too tough, we are hearing voices among the population of 1.3 billion people that China’s foreign policy and national defence are too weak.” He said “Many people say China has changed its path and no longer follows Deng Xiaoping’s idea of staying humble and cautious. I think there is a need to correct this wrong perception.” Xu Hui also said China and the US had failed to find a comfortable balance in defining their relations, and warned that growing mistrust and a bigger gap in perceptions could spark “a new cold war” between the two countries that could spread across East Asia. “We have been trying hard to define this relationship, but regrettably, we have not been able to agree on a definition of the nature of China-US relations that is acceptable to both sides,” adding that Washington had labelled Beijing as a strategic rival in its national security strategy. Major General Xu Hui added that Beijing and Washington should learn from the Korean war, saying the two sides had been dragged into the conflict because of a lack of communication and because they misinterpreted each other’s intentions. “Today we should learn from this lesson and strengthen our communication.”
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