China defender of international, regional rules: senior Chinese military official

SINGAPORE -- China is both the defender and observer of international and regional rules, a senior Chinese military official said here on Saturday.

Lieutenant General He Lei, vice president of the Academy of Military Science of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, made the remarks after defense ministers from the United States, Japan, France and Australia talked about rule-based world orders at the plenary sessions of the ongoing Shangri-la Dialogue, which opened here Friday evening.

"It is well known that the United Nations Charter are the most important international rules, and in my opinion, it also serves as a mother law for all international rules. China was one of the initiating countries for drawing the charter and also one of the earliest signatories to the charter," the Chinese military official said.

China has signed onto more than 23,000 bilateral agreements and more than 400 multilateral agreements with related parties in the world, and it is also a member of all specialized agencies in the United Nations, which demonstrates that China is a country that abides by, supports and defends international and regional rules, He said.

International rules should be the rules that are accepted by most countries, or those that represent the interests of most countries in the world. As for regional rules, they should represent the interests of most countries in the specific region, He said.

Citing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea signed between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the framework for the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea reached recently between China and ASEAN as examples, the Chinese military official said these are models of regional rules.

The three-day dialogue organized by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies gathered senior military officials, diplomats and experts from over 30 countries.

The Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, regional cooperation on security and other hot issues in the Asia-Pacific region top the agenda.