Pentagon chief Hegseth says U.S. ready to ‘fight and win’ against China

Singapore – The head of the Pentagon, Pete Hegseeth, warned on Saturday that the United States was prepared to “fight and win” against China if deterrence efforts failed, while they urged Asian allies to strong military coordination and increase defense spending.

Speaking in the annual dialogue of the Shangri-La Defense Summit in Singapore, the United States Secretary of Defense, Hegseth, emphasized Washington’s resolution to strengthen defense capabilities at a time when the regional war has increased the world and the world, even in Russia in the world.

While playing with the United States commitment to the Indo-Pacific region, Hegseeth Tok slides in the absence of China’s Minister of Defense. “We are here this morning. Someone else is not,” he said.

Hegseeth urged political and defense leaders to the audience to act urgently to go back against the growing military pressure of China in the South China Sea and around Taiwan.

“China has shown that it was to fundamentally alter the status quo of the region. We cannot look the other way and we cannot ignore it. China’s bisavia towards its neighbors and the world is a call of attention and urgent,” said Hegseth.

“We ask, and in fact, we insist that our allies and partners do their part in defense,” said Hegesh, and added that “our defense expense must reflect the dangers and threats we face today, because deterrence is not at a low price.”

Acute rhetoric comes in the context of growing commercial frictions between Washington and Beijing as optimism on an agreement after a temporary tariff truce secured earlier this month decreases.

The commercial conversations of Us-China “are a bit stagnant” and would guarantee the bosses of the two countries to weigh, said Treasury secretary, Scott Besent, Fox News Thursday.

China’s activities in the South China Sea under sovereignty and threaten the freedom of navigation and overflow, while their ongoing military operations near Taiwan point out a clear intention to increase the pressure on the island, said the leader of the Pentagon.

Hey, also promised to intensify the security closer to the United States, eliminating China’s “malignant” influence on the Panama Canal. “It is a key land, after all, China did not build that channel. We did it, and we will not allow China to arm it or control it.”

In March he said in March that he was prepared to fight “any kind of war” with the United States, since President Donald Trump increased economic and political pressure on the country. “If war is what the United States, be it a tariff war, a commercial war or other war, we are ready to fight until the end,” said the Chinese embassy in the United States in a publication.

China’s Minister of Defense, Dong Jun, was absent from this year’s summit: the first time that Beijing’s senior military officer skipped the event since 2019. Beijing, on the other hand, sent a delegation of lower rank, directed by Major General Hug Gangfeng, National Defense Vice.

Major general Hu is expected to participate in a special session later on Saturday on Cooperative Maritime Security in Asia-Pacific.

The absence of China’s senior military official has thrown Doubs on whether there will be a bilateral meeting between Chinese defense officials and the United States.

Last year, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Dong held a bilateral meeting outside the Security Forum, where both parties agreed to maintain the military dialogue.

The absence of Beijing’s Minister of Defense could be an attempt to avoid commitment and conflict with the United States at inflammation points such as Taiwan and the South China Sea, experts said.

“Beijing always wants to control the narrative and speech. Shangri-La does not allow that,” said Drew Thompson, the main member of S. Rajaratnam of International Studies and former US official in the Department of Defense.

“When I was in the Department of Defense, my counterpart of the PL once explained what they did. He said:” We don’t like them to be gladiators who fight each other for the entertainment of others. We want to deal with different Bildaterally,

Beijing sees limited strategic benefits in the sending of his senior defense officials to the annual summit, on the other hand, he focuses on depending the ties through alternative forums in the United States, Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies of the University of Fudan, told TH. That agrees with the translation of CNBC of your comments in Mandarin.

The United States government plans to increase weapons to Taiwan to a level beyond the first authorized mandate of $ 18.3 billion, the size of Trump, the size of the $ 8.4 billion approved under President Biden, according to Reuters.

Propose weapons packages will focus on profitable systems, such as missiles, ammunition and drones, as part of an effort to improve Taiwan deterrence, since Beijing increases the pressure on the democratic island.

The United States has been an important supplier of Taiwan allies and weapons for decades, with Beijing asking Washington to stop such actions and stop creating tensions in the Taiwan Strait.

Beijing states that Taiwan is his territory and has promised to “meet” with the island governed democratically, by force if necessary. The Taiwan government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims.

For years, China has been constantly increasing its military pressure to affirm its sovereign claims over Taiwan, regularly sending naval airplanes and boats near the island.

Dong warned in the Shangri-la Last year dialogue that any force aimed at separating Taiwan from China would face “self-state” and emphasized the Taiwan issue assumed as “the core of our central interest.”

Concerns about Trump’s commitment to the island have also been mounted. On the path of the electoral campaign, Trump had suggested that Taiwan should for the protection of the United States and accused him of diverting the semiconductor industry in the United States, which increases the alarm in Taipei.