While asking Asian nations to increase defence expenditure and cooperate with the US to prevent conflict, US Secretary of defence Pete Hegseth has warned that China poses a “imminent” threat to Taiwan. Hegseth said that although the US does not “seek to dominate or strangle China,” it would not permit intimidation of friends and would not allow its allies to be driven out of Asia.
At the Shangri-la Dialogue, a high-level defence forum held in Singapore every year, he spoke to senior Asian military leaders. Many Asians worry that if China invades Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing claims, there may be chaos. China has not ruled out the use of force.
According to Hegseth’s speech, China aspires to become a “hegemonic power” that “hopes to dominate and control too many parts” of Asia. Due to conflicting territorial claims in the South China Sea, China and several of its neighbours have battled.
He mentioned a 2027 deadline purportedly set by President Xi Jinping for China’s military to be prepared to attack Taiwan and claimed that Beijing was “credibly preparing to potentially use military force to alter the balance of power” in Asia.
For years, US generals and officials have proposed this date, but Beijing has never formally acknowledged it. Chine “is building the military needed to do it, training for it, every day and rehearsing for the real deal”, Hegseth stated.
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