China blasts Hegseth, says U.S. sowing discord in Asia
Senior military officials from various countries talk in a cafe of the hotel where the Shangri-La Dialogue is held in Singapore on June 1. (Kazuhiro Nagashima)
SINGAPORE—Beijing fiercely criticized U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for calling China a 'threat,' arguing that the U.S. government is the one undermining peace and security in Asia.
'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,'' China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement released on June 1.
'The remarks were filled with provocations and intended to sow discord. China deplores and firmly opposes them and has protested strongly to the U.S.,' it said.
Hegseth made the speech on May 31 at the Shangri-La Dialogue, an Asian defense conference in Singapore that was organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies and supported by The Asahi Shimbun and others.
The conference closed on June 1.
In his speech, the U.S. defense chief stressed the 'military threat' posed by China and frequently referred to the Chinese side as 'Communist China' to emphasize the difference in political systems.
He asserted that China is trying to gain hegemony in Asia.
Hegseth also said the United States does not want war with China, but that it will re-establish deterrence.
China's statement countered: 'No country in the world deserves to be called a hegemonic power other than the U.S. itself, who is also the primary factor undermining the peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific.'
Hegseth's speech heightened concerns in Southeast Asia over the widening gap between the United States and China.
A Chinese scholar familiar with U.S.-China relations said Hegseth's speech clearly emphasized the U.S. stance in the Indo-Pacific region but raised other questions.
Hegseth called for countries in the region to believe in the United States and spend more on defense as Europeans countries do.
'But isn't U.S. credibility declining in Europe?' the scholar asked.
Zack Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, commended Hegseth's speech as reassuring but said the references to China were too confrontational.
And while the contents of Hegseth's speech may have been acceptable in Washington, they were not necessarily supported in Southeast Asia, where the conference was held, Cooper said.
Phumtham Wechayachai, deputy prime minister and defense minister of Thailand, took the stage at the conference on June 1 and called for an easing of tensions through dialogue and other means, saying: 'Thailand stands firm on neutrality. We are friends to all.'
A major focus of the conference was the U.S.-China relationship concerning trade and security.
But China did not dispatch its defense minister to the conference. An expected U.S.-China meeting did not take place, and opportunities for communication were very limited.
(This article was written by Sotaro Hata, and correspondents Ryo Kiyomiya and Takashi Ishihara.)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Asahi Shimbun
44 minutes ago
- Asahi Shimbun
INTERVIEW/ Takeshi Nakano: Trump tariffs fueling inevitable collapse of world economic system
U.S. President Donald Trump's high tariffs levied on imports are tossing the world around and leading to irreversible global changes, according to Takeshi Nakano, an economics commentator. He said the ramifications of Trump's tariffs go much further than the immediate consequences of lost sales in the U.S. market. In a recent interview with The Asahi Shimbun, Nakano, known for his books including 'TPP Bokokuron' (The Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade arrangement would ruin the nation), said Trump is seeking a unilateral realignment of the international economic system, a trend that can no longer be stopped. Excerpts of the interview follow: *** Question: How do you see the Trump administration's tariff policy? Nakano: The important thing about the latest tariffs is that they are being imposed on (almost) all countries of the world. In particular, exorbitantly high tariff rates were set for China. So, it's no longer about bilateral trade friction between Japan and the United States. Products from around the world, which are losing the U.S. market, will flow into other nations. That will strengthen deflationary pressure and could trigger scrambles for markets, trade wars and tariff wars among countries other than the United States. Q: What do you think lies in the backdrop of the Trump tariffs? A: The United States has continued to import vast amounts of products, one-sidedly, from the rest of the world and has suffered, as a consequence, from trade deficits and current account deficits. Japan, which has relied on foreign demand, is one of the countries that have taken advantage of an international economic system that is dependent on the United States. All this has engendered the problem of a global imbalance. And the United States is saying that it can no longer withstand that. Japan should take an approach that is totally different from the traditional framework of bilateral talks. The country should increase its domestic demand by taking large-scale fiscal stimulus measures based on international cooperation and call on other countries to refrain from imposing retaliatory tariffs. AIMING FOR WEAKER DOLLAR Q: What is your take on nations' talks with the United States? A: The essential purposes of the Trump tariffs consist of weakening the dollar and tapping into tariff revenue to realize tax cuts in the United States. If Japan were to eliminate its 'nontariff barriers,' that would certainly please the United States, but it would not directly lead to lower (U.S.) tariff rates. What Washington is engineering here is not a trade war but a currency war. Trump is planning to do something that would be tantamount to the 'Nixon shock' of 1971 and the Plaza Accord of 1985. Q: Do you think Trump's policy emerged out of the blue? A: No. A blanket surcharge of 10 percent was imposed on imports by President Richard Nixon during the Nixon shock. That is the same rate as the 'baseline' part of Trump's 'reciprocal' tariffs. Trump cited the U.S. International Emergency Economic Powers Act as the grounds for imposing additional tariffs. That law is successor to the 1917 Trading with the Enemy Act, which was used as the grounds for the import surcharge during the Nixon shock. Trump is doing a repeat of that. Q: Do you think this trend will remain? A: Yes. A collapse of the global economic system appears inevitable even when Trump is no longer there. The burden on the United States has reached its limits, and the trend for going 'America First' did not change even under the administration of President Joe Biden. This is an irreversible trend that will continue into the future. Q: What will be the consequences of a merger between Trump and techno-libertarians (who seek libertarianism through advances in technology)? A: The Biden administration sought to break up the tech industry and regulate cryptocurrencies in an effort to rectify disparities. That infuriated the techno-libertarians, who all at once came to support Trump. Caps on political donations have been found unconstitutional and eliminated in the United States. That is allowing billionaires to do whatever they wish to do. With the huge resources of the tech industry flowing into the Trump camp, the Democrats have no chance of winning any longer. Q: What do you think will become of the United States? A: Properly speaking, Washington should not only be raising tariffs but also be devising industrial policies to bolster the manufacturing industry and taking measures for fixing the disparities. Trump, however, remains liberalistic when it comes to matters other than tariffs and cutting fiscal spending. The United States has become a nation that can no longer fix its own disparities. Trump's backers will realize, sooner or later, that they have been betrayed. When that happens, people in the United States will no longer have any idea who to trust. That could plunge the country into a state of civil war. *** Born in 1971 in Kanagawa Prefecture, Takeshi Nakano graduated from the University of Tokyo's College of Arts and Sciences before joining the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, the predecessor to today's economy ministry. The expert in political and economic thought was also an associate professor with the Kyoto University graduate school. Nakano has authored numerous books, including 'TPP Bokokuron,' 'Kiseki no Keizai Kyoshitsu' (The Miracle School of Economics), 'Sekai wo Senso ni Michibiku Globalism' (Globalism leads the world to war) and 'Jiyu Boeki no Wana' (Pitfalls of free trade). (This article is based on an interview by Yoshikatsu Nakajima and Senior Staff Writer Daisuke Igarashi.)
Nikkei Asia
an hour ago
- Nikkei Asia
'Agroterrorism' arrest in US spurs calls to bring back China Initiative
WASHINGTON -- Federal authorities have charged two Chinese nationals with smuggling into the U.S. a fungus that could cause significant damage to crops of wheat, barley, maize and rice and has been described as a "potential agroterrorism weapon." Tuesday's announcement has triggered calls here to revive the China Initiative, which was established by the U.S. Department of Justice in the first administration of President Donald Trump to combat industrial espionage. The program was ended in February 2022 by then-President Joe Biden's administration amid accusations of racial discrimination against Chinese scientists.
Japan Today
an hour ago
- Japan Today
A quiet Tiananmen Square anniversary shows China's ability to suppress history
By KEN MORITSUGU and KANIS LEUNG For most Chinese, the 36th anniversary of a bloody crackdown that ended pro-democracy protests in China passed like any other weekday. And that's just how the ruling Communist Party wants it. Security was tight Wednesday around Beijing's Tiananmen Square, where weeks of student-led protests shook the party in 1989. Under then-leader Deng Xiaoping, the military was sent in to end the protest on the night of June 3-4. Using live ammunition, soldiers forced their way through crowds that tried to block them from reaching the square. Hundreds and possibly thousands of people were killed, including dozens of soldiers. The party has tried, with some success, to erase what it calls the 'political turmoil' of 1989 from the collective memory. It bans any public commemoration or mention of the June 4 crackdown, scrubbing references from the internet. In recent years, that ban has been extended to Hong Kong, where a once-massive annual candlelight vigil is no longer permitted. Police said they brought 10 people on suspicion of breaching public peace to a police station for investigation. Three were still detained late Wednesday, while the rest were allowed to leave. Police also arrested a woman for failing to show her identity document and a man for obstructing police officers from performing their duties. It is only in Taiwan, a self-governing island that is claimed by China but runs its own affairs, that large June 4 gatherings can still take place. Tiananmen Square is a vast space in the center of Beijing with monumental, communist-era buildings along two sides and the mausoleum of Mao Zedong, who founded the communist era in 1949, on the south end. University students occupied this symbolically important site in the spring of 1989. Their calls for freedoms divided the party leadership. The decision to send in troops marked a decisive turning point in the evolution of modern China, keeping the party firmly in control as it loosened economic restrictions. Chinese officials have said the country's rapid economic development since then proves the decisions made at the time were correct. 'On the political turmoil that happened in the late 1980s, the Chinese government has already reached a clear conclusion," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Wednesday. He added that China would continue along its current path of what it calls 'socialism with Chinese characteristics." Tiananmen Mothers, a group formed by relatives of the victims, made an annual online appeal to the government. Signed by 108 members, it called for an independent investigation into what happened on June 4, 1989, including a list of all who died. The group also demanded compensation for the families and a legal case against those responsible for the deaths. The British and German Embassies in Beijing posted videos commemorating the anniversary on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform, but they were later taken down, presumably by censors. The Canadian and German Embassies displayed images of a single lit candle on large screens facing the main street. In Hong Kong, a carnival showcasing Chinese food and products was held in Victoria Park, where tens of thousands of people used to gather for a candlelight vigil to mark the anniversary. Hong Kong authorities first shut down the vigil during the COVID-19 pandemic and arrested the organizers in 2021. The moves were part of a broader crackdown on dissent following monthslong anti-government protests in 2019 that turned violent and paralyzed parts of the city. A former district council member, Chan Kim-kam, said customs officers questioned her at her shop on the eve of June 4 after she advertised small white candles for sale in an Instagram post titled 'June, we don't forget.' 'You know, Hong Kongers have become silent lambs after 2019,' said King Ng, who was at the park on Wednesday. Police were out in force to try to prevent any protest, and took several people away from the park on Wednesday. They included a young woman wearing a school uniform and holding flowers, a man who lowered his head in apparent prayer, and a man wearing a white T-shirt reading 'Vindication for June 4. It's getting closer and closer." Police also questioned a woman who lit up a mosquito lamp, but eventually let her go. Rows of electronic candles lit up the windows of the U.S. consulate, and the British consulate projected 'VIIV' — Roman numerals in reference to June 4 — on one of its walls. The British and Canadian consulates earlier posted social media messages about remembering June 4. Hong Kong was a British colony until 1997. The U.S. consulate posted a message from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on its website. 'The CCP actively tries to censor the facts,' Rubio said, referring to China's Communist Party. "But the world will never forget.' Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te used the anniversary to position the island he leads on the frontline of defending democracy against authoritarianism. In a Facebook post, he drew a distinction between Taiwan's multiparty democracy and China's one-party rule. 'Authoritarian governments often choose to remain silent and forget about history, while democratic societies choose to preserve the truth and refuse to forget those who have contributed to the ideals of human rights and the dreams they embrace,' Lai wrote. Taiwan transitioned from authoritarianism to democracy in a process that began in the late 1980s. It relies on support principally from the U.S., along with other democratic partners, to deter China from an invasion. Several hundred people gathered Wednesday evening for a candlelight vigil in downtown Taipei's Freedom Square. In the center stood a scaled-down model of the 'Pillar of Shame," a sculpture commemorating the protests that once stood on the campus of the University of Hong Kong. Hong Kong authorities have placed bounties on some activists who have moved abroad. Other democracy advocates in the semi-autonomous Chinese city remain in jail or intimidated into silence. Wu Lang-huang, a Taiwanese professor who was present when troops arrived on the square in 1989, said he will continue to document what happened and collect related artifacts. 'It's not just about remembering what happened then but also for the lessons it tells us about modern Hong Kong and Taiwan,' Wu said. One of the vigil's organizers, who went by the name Mimi for fear of repercussions, said some may question why people born years after the 1989 protests still care. 'It's about memory, which is itself a form of resistance,' she said. The year in which British colonial rule ended in Hong Kong has been corrected in this story to 1997. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
