10th Beijing Xiangshan Forum

From October 29th-31^st, Pascal Abb participated in the 10th Beijing Xiangshan Forum, held in Beijing. The Xiangshan Forum is a multi­lateral track 1.5 dialogue on security issues organized by the Chinese armed forces, and involving a large number of inter­national experts and military officers. This year’s edition was the first since 2019, owing to the pandemic break, and attended by many high-profile inter­national speakers.

At the forum, Pascal Abb participated in the Young Military Officers and Scholars roundtable discussion, as well as a panel on the security of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). He noted that Chinese infra­structure projects are highly exposed to conflict risks in countries like Pakistan, which also in­creasingly requires a more active Chinese overseas security involvement. At the same time, they would benefit from adopting a dedicated conflict sensit­ivity paradigm, and better communi­cation with local stakeholders.

Pascal Abb is Coordinator of the Research Group “Regime Competition” and Senior Researcher at PRIF with a focus on China. He is currently conducting a research project on the impact of the Belt and Road Initiative on conflict states.