SCO Defense Ministers' Meeting held in China's Qingdao

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Defense Ministers' Meeting started on Wednesday in Qingdao City, east China's Shandong Province.

Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun will host and address the meeting, the Ministry said on Tuesday.

The two-day event is attended by defense leaders of SCO member countries, as well as senior officials of SCO Secretariat and Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure.

As an important activity hosted by China as the rotating president of SCO, the meeting will further consolidate and deepen the military mutual trust and pragmatic cooperation among SCO member countries, promote the implementation of co-building the shared home featuring solidarity and mutual trust, peace and tranquility, prosperity and development, good-neighborliness and friendship, as well as fairness and justice, and contribute to safeguarding world and regional peace and stability and promoting prosperity and development, according to the Chinese Defense Ministry. 

Footage captured by China Central Television on Tuesday showed the conference hall with a huge circular table at Qingdao International Conference Center.

The emblem of China's rotating presidency takes the SCO emblem as its main body combined with unique Chinese features. A slogan of the rotating presidency "Upholding the Shanghai Spirit: SCO on the move" circles around the main body in three languages of Chinese, Russian and English.

Classical patterns of cloud, thunder and dragon orientating from bronze ware of the pre-Qin period (before 221 BC) adorn the emblem's outer cycle, interlocked in the Chinese traditional Hui-style pattern, which symbolizes an unending cycle of hope.

Following the Astana summit in July 2024, China assumed the rotating presidency of the SCO for 2024-2025 and will host the 25th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO in north China's Tianjin Municipality this autumn.

The SCO is the first international organization with China as a founding member state and named after a Chinese city.

SCO Defense Ministers' Meeting held in China's Qingdao

No one and no force should be allowed to engage in provocations or stir up trouble on the Taiwan question, which lies at the very heart of China's core interests and represents a red line that must not be crossed, a Chinese mainland spokeswoman said on Wednesday in Beijing.

Zhang Han, spokeswoman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, made the comments at a regular press conference in response to a media query concerning Japan calling China's countermeasures against Japanese lawmaker Keiji Furuya's egregious acts related to Taiwan as "regrettable".

"I want to stress once again that the Taiwan question is at the very heart of China's core interests and represents a red line that must not be crossed. Keiji Furuya's overt interference in China's internal affairs over the Taiwan question constitutes a serious infringement on China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. The countermeasures China has taken in response are entirely reasonable and lawful. Japan, for its part, should make deep reflection on its history of aggression, draw lessons from the past, earnestly correct its course, abide by the one-China principle and the spirit of the four political documents between China and Japan, and must not allow any individual or any force to engage in provocations or cause trouble on the Taiwan question," she said.

No provocation on Taiwan question to be tolerated: spokeswoman