Pentagon chief warns China ‘preparing' to use military force in Asia
SINGAPORE: US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth warned Saturday that China was 'credibly preparing' to use military force to upend the balance of power in Asia, vowing the United States was 'here to stay' in the Indo-Pacific region.
The Pentagon chief made the remarks at an annual security forum in Singapore as the administration of US President Donald Trump spars with Beijing on trade, technology, and influence over strategic corners of the globe.
Since taking office in January, Trump has launched a trade war with China, sought to curb its access to key AI technologies and deepened security ties with allies such as the Philippines, which is engaged in escalating territorial disputes with Beijing.
'The threat China poses is real and it could be imminent,' Hegseth said at the Shangri-La Dialogue attended by defence officials from around the world.
Beijing is 'credibly preparing to potentially use military force to alter the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific', he added.
Hegseth warned the Chinese military was building the capabilities to invade Taiwan and 'rehearsing for the real deal'.
Trump signals fresh trade tensions with China
Beijing has ramped up military pressure on Taiwan and held multiple large-scale exercises around the island, often described as preparations for a blockade or invasion.
The United States was 'reorienting toward deterring aggression by communist China', Hegseth said, calling on US allies and partners in Asia to swiftly upgrade their defences in the face of mounting threats.
'Wake-up call'
Hegseth described China's conduct as a 'wake-up call', accusing Beijing of endangering lives with cyber attacks, harassing its neighbours, and 'illegally seizing and militarising lands' in the South China Sea.
Beijing claims almost the entire disputed waterway, through which more than 60 percent of global maritime trade passes, despite an international ruling that its assertion has no merit.
It has clashed repeatedly with the Philippines in the strategic waters in recent months, with the flashpoint set to dominate discussions at the Singapore defence forum, according to US officials.
Trump says China has 'totally violated' agreement with US on tariffs
As Hegseth spoke in Singapore, China's military announced that its navy and air force were carrying out routine 'combat readiness patrols' around the Scarborough Shoal, a chain of reefs and rocks Beijing disputes with the Philippines.
'China's assertiveness in the South China Sea has only increased in recent years,' Casey Mace, charge d'affaires at the US embassy in Singapore, told journalists ahead of the meeting.
'I think that this type of forum is exactly the type of forum where we need to have an exchange on that.'
Beijing has not sent any top defence ministry officials to the summit, dispatching a delegation from the People's Liberation Army National Defence University instead.
Hegseth's hard-hitting address drew a critical reaction from Chinese analysts at the conference.
Da Wei, director of the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University told reporters the speech was 'very unfriendly' and 'very confrontational', accusing Washington of double standards in demanding Beijing respect its neighbours while bullying its own – including Canada and Greenland.
Former Senior Colonel Zhou Bo, from the Centre for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University told AFP that training drills did not mean China would invade Taiwan, saying the government wanted 'peaceful reunification'.
US defence chief looks to woo allies in Asian security forum debut
Hegseth's comments came after Trump stoked new trade tensions with China, arguing that Beijing had 'violated' a deal to de-escalate tariffs as the two sides appeared deadlocked in negotiations.
The world's two biggest economies had agreed to temporarily lower eye-watering tariffs they had imposed on each other, pausing them for 90 days.
But on Friday, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: 'China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US', without providing details.
'Priority theatre'
Reassuring US allies on Saturday, Hegseth said the Indo-Pacific was 'America's priority theatre', pledging to ensure 'China cannot dominate us – or our allies and partners'.
He said the United States had stepped up cooperation with allies including the Philippines and Japan, and reiterated Trump's vow that 'China will not invade (Taiwan) on his watch'.
But he called on US partners in the region to ramp up spending on their militaries and 'quickly upgrade their own defences'.
'Asian allies should look to countries in Europe for a newfound example,' Hegseth said, citing pledges by NATO members including Germany to move toward Trump's spending target of five percent of GDP. 'Deterrence doesn't come on the cheap.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Recorder
an hour ago
- Business Recorder
US, China trade row could ease after Trump-Xi talks: Treasury chief
WASHINGTON: US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday that President Donald Trump could speak with China's Xi Jinping 'very soon,' and that such a call could help break the logjam in the trade talks between the world's two biggest economies. Trump on Friday accused Beijing of violating a deal reached last month in Geneva – negotiated by Bessent – to temporarily lower staggeringly high tariffs they had imposed on each other, in a pause to last 90 days. China's slow-walking on export license approvals for rare earths and other elements needed to make cars and chips have fueled US frustration, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday – a concern since confirmed by US officials. But Bessent seemed to take the pressure down a notch, telling CBS's 'Face the Nation' that the gaps could be bridged. Trump signals fresh trade tensions with China 'I'm confident that when President Trump and Party Chairman Xi have a call that this will be ironed out,' Bessent said, however noting that China was 'withholding some of the products that they agreed to release during our agreement.' When asked if rare earths were one of those products, Bessent said, 'Yes.' 'Maybe it's a glitch in the Chinese system. Maybe it's intentional. We'll see after the president speaks with' Xi, he said. On when a Trump-Xi call could take place, Bessent said: 'I believe we will see something very soon.' Since Trump returned to the presidency, he has slapped sweeping tariffs on most US trading partners, with especially high rates on Chinese imports. New tit-for-tat levies on both sides reached three digits before the de-escalation this month, where Washington agreed to temporarily reduce additional tariffs on Chinese imports from 145 percent to 30 percent. China, meanwhile, lowered its added duties from 125 percent to 10 percent. In an interview with ABC's 'This Week,' Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said China was 'slow-rolling the deal,' adding: 'We are taking certain actions to show them what it feels like on the other side of that equation.' 'Our president understands what to do. He's going to go work it out,' Lutnick said.
Express Tribune
2 hours ago
- Express Tribune
China protests US defence chief's 'vilifying' Indo-Pacific remarks
China accuses Pete Hegseth of sowing division in Asia in speech 'filled with provocations'. PHOTO: NEWSWEEK Listen to article China has protested to the United States against "vilifying" remarks made by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the foreign ministry said on Sunday, while accusing it of deliberately ignoring calls for peace from regional nations. China has objected to Hegseth calling it a threat in the Indo-Pacific, the ministry added, describing his comments at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday as "deplorable". "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 ministry said on its website. "The United States has deployed offensive weaponry in the South China Sea and kept stoking flames and creating tensions in the Asia-Pacific, which are turning the region into a powder keg," it added in the statement. China's defence ministry also weighed in, saying the U.S. is "accustomed to using" the forum to "stoke disputes, sow discord and seek selfish interests". "China's armed forces will work with other countries in the region to oppose hegemonism harming the Asia-Pacific region," ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang said in a statement posted on the ministry's WeChat account. Hegseth had urged allies in the Indo-Pacific region, including key security partner Australia, to spend more on defence after warning of the "real and potentially imminent" threat from China. Asked about the call to boost defence spending, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his government had pledged an extra A$10 billion ($6 billion) to defence. "What we'll do is we'll determine our defence policy," he told reporters on Sunday, a transcript of his remarks showed. As part of Washington's longstanding defence ties with the Philippines, the U.S. military this year deployed Typhon launchers that can fire missiles to hit targets in both China and Russia from the island of Luzon. India believes switching tactics on the first day of conflict with Pakistan earlier this month established a decisive advantage, before the neighbors announced a ceasefire three days later, India's highest-ranking general said on Saturday. China and the Philippines contest sovereignty over some islands and atolls in the South China Sea, with growing maritime run-ins between their coast guards as both vie to patrol the waters. China's delegation at the forum said "external intervention" was the biggest risk for stability in the South China Sea, saying the country had shown "goodwill and restraint" through talks on the issue. "Some foreign powers have sent warplanes and warships to the South China Sea for so-called 'freedom of navigation,'" the state-backed Global Times newspaper cited Senior Colonel Zhang Chi from the PLA National Defence University as saying. Such actions infringed China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, he added. The United States, Australia, Japan and the Philippines have conducted joint maritime operations in the busy waterway. China claims nearly all the South China Sea, including parts of the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. In 2016, an international arbitration tribunal ruled Beijing's expansive claim had no basis in international law, however. China's foreign ministry also told the United States not to "play with fire" on the question of Taiwan. Any attempt by China to conquer Taiwan "would result in devastating consequences", Hegseth said in his speech to Asia's premier forum for defence leaders, military officials and diplomats. China has vowed to "reunify" with the separately governed island, by force if necessary. Taiwan's government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, saying only the island's people can decide their future.
Business Recorder
7 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Saab CEO sees Europe streamlining defence demands amid spending push
SINGAPORE: The European defence market needs to align requirements and demand in order to create scale as it attempts to boost capability, the CEO of Swedish defence group Saab said. 'The important thing is that you cannot have every country, sort of tailoring the requirements to different sorts of versions, then it becomes difficult,' Micael Johansson told Reuters in an interview on Saturday on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security meeting in Singapore. The European Union's 23 members are expected to agree at a summit in June to raise the defence spending target above the current 2% of national output as countries bend to pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to spend more. 'Europe has a big catch up to do in terms of capability that we need to have in place to take care of our own security,' Johansson said, adding that defence capabilities will still need to be built up even if a peace deal in Ukraine is achieved. Beyond improving capabilities in Europe, he said that he has seen a greater willingness for collaboration between countries other than the U.S. for defence products, and that European players are prepared to establish sovereign capabilities in the countries they partner. 'That's what we're prepared to do, if we're part of this of course, to help, and that includes technology transfer and collaboration, and not just selling,' he said. The Thai Air Force chose to purchase its Gripen fighter jets in August last year, selecting Saab over Lockheed Martin's F-16 fighter jets even though Thailand is a security ally of the United States. EU threatens countermeasures over Trump's steel tariffs hike He also noted that the company's fighter jet programme is building more unmanned capabilities as air defence systems and lethal weapons capabilities improve. 'Because of the congested environment that you have to operate in, the suppression of enemy air defence systems, you have to take bigger risks and you have to think about attrition. Then you don't want to send your fighter pilots into something that's really, really dangerous,' he said.
