The US defense minister Pete Hegseth (C) will be in addition to Malaysia's Defense Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin (R) and other defense officials of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) during a multilateral meeting on May 30, 2025 during a multilateral meeting in Singapore in Singapore.
Mohd Rasfan | AFP | Getty pictures
Singapore – Pentagon boss Pete Hegseth warned on Saturday that the United States was ready to “fight and win” against China when the deterrent effort fails, and urged Asian allies to strengthen military coordination and increase defense expenses.
At the annual defense summit Shangri-la-dialog in Singapore, the US Defense Minister Hegseth Washington determined determination to strengthen defense skills at a time than regional warfare around the world is used up, including Russia's war in Ukraine and the military conflict in Gaza.
While Hegseth appeared in the United States' commitment to the Indo-Pacific region, he exposed himself to the absence of the Chinese Minister of Defense. “We are here this morning. Someone else is not,” he said.
Hegseth asked the political and defense leaders in the audience to act urgently in order to withdraw against China's increasing military pressure in the South China Sea and Taiwan.
“China has shown that it wants to fundamentally change the status quo of the region. We cannot look away and we cannot ignore it. China's behavior towards its neighbors and the world is an alarm call and an urgent one,” said Hegseth.
“We ask and in fact we insist that our allies and partners participate in defense,” said Hegseth, adding that “our defense editions have to reflect the dangers and threats that we are confronted with today because deterrence is not cheap.”
The sharp rhetoric comes against the background of the increasing trade friction between Washington and Beijing as an optimism over a deal according to a temporary tariff armory at the beginning of this month.
US China trade talks “have stalled a bit” and would justify the heads of the two countries, finance minister Scott Bessent told Fox News on Thursday.
China's activities in the South China Sea undermine sovereignty and threaten the freedom of navigation and overflight, while the ongoing military operations near Taiwan have a clear intention to escalate the pressure on the island, said the Pentagon leader.
He also vowed to increase the security closer to the United States and to eliminate China's “malignant” influence on the Panama Canal. “After all, it is an important terrain, China did not build this channel. We did it and we will not allow China to weave or control it.”
China said in March that it was ready to fight “any kind of war” with the United States when President Donald Trump increased the economic and political pressure on the country. “If the war is what the United States want, be it a tariff war, a trade war or another kind of war, we are ready to fight until the end,” said the Chinese embassy in the United States in one position.
China Top Officer absent
China's Defense Minister Dong Jun was absent at this year's summit for the first time that Beijing's top military officers have skipped the event since 2019. Instead, Beijing has sent a lower delegation, which was led by Major Hu Gangfeng, Vice President of the National Defense University of the People's Liberation Army.
Major General HU is expected to take part in a special session for cooperative maritime security in the Asian-Pacific area later on Saturday.
The lack of the highest military officer in China has had doubts as to whether there will be a bilateral meeting between Chinese and the US defense officers.
Last year, the then US defense minister Lloyd Austin and Dong held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the security forum, in which both sides agreed to maintain the military dialogue.
The lack of Beijing's Minister of Defense could be an attempt to avoid commitment and conflict with the United States in Flashpoints such as Taiwan and the South China Sea, experts said.
“Beijing always wants to control the narrative and discourse. Shangri-La does not allow this,” said Drew Thompson, Senior Fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies and former American official of the Ministry of Defense.
“When I was at DOD, my PLA counterfeit once explained to me what they didn't like. He said: 'We don't like to fight against each other against the entertainment of others as gladiators. We want to bilaterally in channels, not in public forums to deal with our differences,” he added.
Beijing sees limited strategic advantages in sending its top defense officers to the annual summit, but focuses on the deepening of relationships through alternative forums without US presence, said Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University, compared to CNBC at the beginning of this month. After translating his comments in Mandarin by CNBC.
Taiwan edition
The US government plans to increase weapon sales to Taiwan to a level that exceeded the $ 8.4 billion in the first term of $ 18.3 billion in the first term of Trump's first term.
The proposed weapon packages focus on inexpensive systems such as rockets, ammunition and drones to improve Taiwan's deterrent skills, since Beijing increases pressure on the democratic island.
The United States has been an important ally and arms supplier in Taiwan for decades, and Beijing asked Washington to stop such actions and create tensions in the Taiwan road.
Beijing claims Taiwan as a territory and has sworn to “combine” again with the democratically ruled island. The government of Taiwan rejects Beijing's claims for sovereignty.
For years, China has been increasing its military pressure to make his sovereign claims for Taiwan and to regularly send aircraft and naval ships near the island.
Dong warned in the Shangri-la dialogue last year that all the forces that Taiwan are supposed to separate from China would be exposed to “self-destruction” and emphasized the Taiwan problem as the “core of our core interest”.
The concerns have also dealt with Trump's commitment to the island. On the election campaign path, Trump had proposed that Taiwan should pay for the US protection, and accused the semiconductor industry in America and trigger the alarm in Taipei.
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