By Dingding Chen
Both sides exercised restraint, at least for now. But lots of uncertainties lay ahead.
Perhaps both China and the United States felt relieved after the conclusion of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore as there was, a bit surprisingly, no highly emotional and angry exchange between defense officials from the two countries. Although the U.S. defense secretary, Ashton Carter, directly criticized China’s island reclamation projects, the tone was moderate and thus somewhat pleased the Chinese audience. China, likewise, hit back at the U.S. for disrupting peace and stability in the South China Sea, but the overall atmosphere was rational and under control.
Given the high-profile incident of a U.S. P-8 surveillance plane flying over China’s artificial islands last week and Carter’s harsh remarks on China in Hawaii before the Shangri-La Dialogue, many expected a much more confrontational exchange between the U.S. and China at the Dialogue, but that didn’t happen. Why? There are three possible reasons to explain this situation of moderation between the U.S. and China.
Read the full story at The Diplomat