ADMM-Plus 2026: Why China’s Dong Jun Is Skipping Cebu

China has decided to send only the defence attaché at its embassy in Manila to the 13th ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) in Cebu on October 29, leaving Defence Minister Admiral Dong Jun away from the region’s main gathering of defence chiefs. The Chinese Ministry of National Defence announced the decision on October 27, stating only that its representative would exchange views on dialogue and mutual trust and would reiterate China’s “firm support to ASEAN centrality in the regional architecture.” Sources quoted by the state-run Global Times described it as the lowest level of Chinese representation since the forum first met in 2010, with the minister having attended 11 of the 12 previous sessions and a ministry delegation the other. The downgrade turns a routine multilateral meeting into a significant measure of how far relations between China and the host have deteriorated over the South China Sea this year.

Beijing gave no reason for Dong’s absence, which the South China Morning Post noted coincides with the Communist Party’s fifth plenum, but Chinese officials have left little doubt that Manila’s chairmanship is a central factor. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said on October 26 that China opposed “attempts by anyone to use this platform to seek selfish gains, hijack ASEAN and create trouble,” while Ding Duo of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies told the Global Times that the Philippines had turned the meeting into a platform to hype the dispute, singling out Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. as a representative of anti-China forces. The decision follows only days after the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs summoned Ambassador Jing Quan on October 19 over his statement four days earlier that “if we want to use force, we may easily win,” a remark Foreign Secretary Maria Theresa Lazaro called “provocative and unacceptable.”

The friction at sea has continued alongside the diplomatic row, with the Philippine Coast Guard reporting in early October that Chinese coast guard vessels obstructed an operation against suspected dynamite fishing near Pag-asa Island while a Chinese military helicopter hovered overhead. China’s wider build-up in the region has been considerable, with a new runway at Antelope Reef in the Paracel Islands and a fleet of around 60 submarines giving the People’s Liberation Army Navy a reach no Southeast Asian state can match. The Philippine Navy had invited a Chinese warship to an ASEAN maritime security exercise in disputed waters in September, according to the Daily Tribune, and Beijing did not respond.

The meetings in Cebu, which run from October 26 to 30, bring together the ten ASEAN members and eight dialogue partners, among them the U.S., Japan, Australia, India and Russia, with U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth confirmed to attend and Manila holding separate informal defence talks with Washington and Tokyo. Department of National Defense spokesperson Arsenio Andolong said the bilateral talks with the U.S. would focus on operational cooperation and military modernisation, an agenda shared by several ASEAN members now taking delivery of new fighters. Dong attended the 12th ADMM-Plus in Kuala Lumpur in November 2025, where the Philippines took over the chairmanship it is due to hand to Singapore on October 29.