China says US turning Asia-Pacific into 'powder keg' over Taiwan
The United States is undermining peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region and "turning it into a powder keg," a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Sunday in response to remarks by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The spokesman simultaneously warned the US not to interfere in China's conflict with Taiwan.
"Hegseth deliberately ignored the call for peace and development by countries in the region, and instead touted the Cold War mentality for bloc confrontation, vilified China with defamatory allegations, and falsely called China a 'threat,'" the spokesman said.
Regarding Taiwan, the spokesman said the island's future was "entirely China's internal affair" and that no country was in a position to interfere. The US could not use the Taiwan question as leverage and "must never play with fire on this question," he said.
Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue security conference in Singapore on Saturday, Hegseth said China was building the military it needed to invade Taiwan and was "training for it every day, and rehearsing for the real deal."
The same day, Admiral Hu Gangfeng, head of the Chinese delegation to the conference, termed Hegseth's allegations unfounded, adding that "they aim to incite confrontation and destabilize the region."
In his address, Hegseth called on Washington's Asian allies to spend more on defence, saying that deterrence had its price.
Hegseth accused China of seeking hegemony in Asia and aiming to dominate and control the entire region. He said that the US did not seek conflict "with Communist China. We will not instigate nor seek to subjugate or humiliate," he said.
But the US "will not be pushed out of this critical region, and we will not let our allies and partners be subordinated and intimidated," Hegseth said.
Under President Xi Jinping, China has repeatedly warned it could use military force to seize Taiwan, which has been independent from Beijing for decades with its own democratically elected government.
The annual Shangri-La Dialogue draws hundreds of government ministers, military officers and experts from all over the world.
Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun did not attend at this year. Observers said this was deliberate to avoid a possible meeting with Hegseth.
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