Dong Jun takes softer line on US at Xiangshan Forum as Xi prepares for Trump summit

Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun’s address to a defence gathering in Beijing on Wednesday carried a message for Washington but it was delivered in a notably softer, less critical tone, according to a retired senior colonel in the People’s Liberation Army.

Zhou Bo, now a senior fellow at the Centre for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University, said Dong’s tone was “relatively mild”, even as the Chinese defence minister made veiled references to the US and its actions in the...