The 12th Asian Security Conference, also called the Shangri-La Dialogue, was held in Singapore, concluding on June 2, 2013. The representatives of the participating countries and regions focused their attention on Asia-Pacific regional security cooperation.
Qi Jianguo, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the PLA, made the observation that, in the past 30 years, almost all of the world’s major counties have used their armed forces to participate in a war. "For nearly 30 years, China is the only country that has not used its armed forces to participate in any war or to provoke a military conflict.”
Military expert Du Wenlong interpreted the message that Qi was signaling. In an interview on the CCTV program, "Today’s Focus," he said that the message expresses two levels of meaning: On the one hand, for the last 30 years, China has not wanted war. First and foremost it has chosen a path of peaceful dialogue and peaceful development. However this approach has also made us lose a lot of opportunities. For example, in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other wars, the armed forces of the United States gained experience in its comprehensive combat capability. Its new weapons and equipment in all combat operations have been tested. We had some trade-offs in these areas compared with the Western counties.
On the other hand, 30 years ago, the Chinese army was invincible. From 1949 on, after the founding of the Republic of China, the PLA won all of its wars. Now, with the increase in China’s comprehensive national power and with the development of its military technology, we are capable of producing all the weapons required to safeguard our national security, from the F -15, aircraft carriers, and stealth fighter to the new surface ships, etc. From this point of view, we have no reason to fear any war.
Source: People’s Daily, June 3, 2013
http://military.people.com.cn/n/2013/0603/c1011-21713902.html