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BEIJING: Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun denounced “hegemonic logic and acts of bullying” during remarks Thursday at a Beijing forum that were full of thinly veiled references to the United States.
Organizers say about 1,800 representatives from 100 countries, including political, military and academic leaders, are gathering in Beijing for the Xiangshan Forum, considered China’s answer to the annual Shangri-La meeting in Singapore.
The three-day event comes as China presents itself as a mediator of fraught global issues including ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
Addressing attendees at the opening ceremony on Thursday, Dong warned of “new threats and challenges” now facing world peace.
“While the themes of the times — peace and development — remain unchanged, the clouds of a Cold War mentality, hegemonism and protectionism have not lifted,” he said.
“Historical memory must serve as a constant warning to recognize and oppose hegemonic logic and acts of bullying that are disguised in a new form.”
The comments were a subtle reference to the United States, China’s primary competitor in recent years across a wide range of economic and geopolitical arenas.
Dong’s remarks come two weeks after a grand military parade in Tiananmen Square to commemorate China’s 1945 victory over a Japanese invasion, which left millions dead.
The parade saw China unveil a host of new weapons, including advanced intercontinental ballistic missiles, drones and laser technology.
In attendance were several leaders that have long been at odds with Western governments, including Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

Maritime disputes

Dong’s remarks also touched on China’s protection of maritime interests — a topic that ruffles feathers in the region and beyond.
Several countries are currently ensnared in longstanding disputes with Beijing over sovereignty in the contested South China Sea.
Recent months have seen a series of confrontations between China and close US ally the Philippines in the crucial waterway.

Beijing claims almost all of the area despite an international ruling that the assertion has no basis.
“The so-called freedom of navigation advocated by certain countries outside the region and the so-called international arbitration advocated by certain claimants blatantly challenge the fundamental norms of international relations,” Dong said.
He added that China’s safeguarding of “territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests... is a firm defense of the post-war order and international rule of law.”
The Philippines said this week that one person was injured when a water cannon attack by a China Coast Guard vessel shattered a window on the bridge of a fisheries bureau ship near a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.
The defense forum comes with anticipation growing over a potential meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump.

Dong held a video call this week with US counterpart Pete Hegseth, which covered various thorny topics including the South China Sea and Taiwan.
China considers self-ruled Taiwan part of its territory and has not excluded the use of force to take it.
Washington is the democratic island’s main arms supplier and is committed to its defense.
The Pentagon said the talks were “candid and constructive,” with Hegseth and Dong agreeing to further discussions.
 

NEW YORK: Bjorn Borg starts his new memoir, “Heartbeats,” with a story about being rushed to a Dutch hospital in the 1990s after overdosing on “alcohol, drugs, pills — my preferred ways of self-medication,” and the Swedish tennis great closes it by revealing that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

“It’s good,” Borg, 69, said in a recent video interview with The Associated Press from his home in Stockholm, “to have a good beginning and a good ending.”

In between, the 292-page book, which will be released in the US by Diversion Books on Sept. 23, contains revelations about his love life, various adventures and regrets, and the 11-time Grand Slam champion’s detailed recollections of particular matches.

Bjorn Borg quit tennis at age 25 because he stopped caring when he lost

Famously private, Borg kept a lot to himself during his days on tour — as well as since he surprisingly retired in his 20s.

He brings readers back to when, having lost the 1981 Wimbledon and US Open finals to rival John McEnroe, Borg realized he was done.

“All I could think was how miserable my life had become,” he writes.

He was 25 and, while he would briefly return to tennis, he never competed at another Grand Slam event.

After the 1981 final at the US Open, a tournament he never won, Borg grabbed some beers and sat in the pool at a house on Long Island, where friends planned a party to celebrate a victory.

“I was not upset or sad when I lost the final. And that’s not me as a person. I hate to lose,” he told the AP.

“My head was spinning,” he said, “and I knew I’m going to step away from tennis.”

Bjorn Borg wasn’t always calm on a tennis court

Borg writes about his childhood and his relationships with his parents (and, later, his children).

He writes about earning the nickname “Ice-Borg” for calmness on court — often contrasted by fans to the more fiery McEnroe and Jimmy Connors. And Borg writes that did not come about “organically,” but rather via “the bitter experiences” of a 12-year-old kid.

“I behaved so badly on the tennis court. I was swearing, cheating, behaving the worst you can imagine,” he recalled in the video interview.

He said his hometown tennis club banned him for six months and, when he returned, “I did not open my mouth on the tennis court, because I was scared to get suspended again.”

“Boiling inside? Yes,” Borg told the AP. “I had to control my feelings. ... You cannot do that in one week. It took years to figure out how I should behave on the court.”

Borg discusses cocaine and 2 overdoses that landed him in the hospital

Borg writes about panic attacks and his drug use, which he says started in 1982.

“The first time I tried cocaine,” he says in the book, “I got the same kind of rush I used to get from tennis.”

He also writes about “the worst shame of all,” which he says came when he looked up from a hospital bed in Holland to see his father. Borg also clarifies that an earlier overdose, in 1989 in Italy, was accidental, not a suicide attempt.

“Stupid decision to be involved with this kind of thing. It really destroys you,” he told the AP about drugs. “I was happy to get away from tennis, to get away from that life. But I had no plan what to do. ... I had no people behind me to guide me in the right direction.”

Borg name-drops Trump, Arafat, Warhol, Hefner, Tina Turner in his memoir

In all, Borg paints the picture of quite a life.

There was a water-skiing shoulder injury before 1977 US Open. Death threats during the 1981 US Open. Getting paid in cash ... and getting robbed at gunpoint. A woman claiming he was the father of her son. Coin-throwing by spectators in Rome that led him to never return.

This is not the typical sports autobiography: There is a reference to getting a message to Yasser Arafat and, five pages later, the phrase ”Andy Warhol was someone easy to like” appears. There are name-drops of Donald Trump, Nelson Mandela, Tina Turner and “my old friend Hugh Hefner,” among many, many others.

“People will be very surprised what really happened,” Borg told the AP. “For me to come out (after) all these years, all I went through — I went through some difficult times — (it’s) a relief for me to do this book. I feel so much better. ... No secrets anymore.”