US defense secretary Pete Hegseth reassured allies in the Indo-Pacific on Saturday that they will not be left alone to face increasing military and economic pressure from China, while insisting that they also contribute more to their own defence.
He said Washington will bolster its defences overseas to counter what the Pentagon sees as rapidly developing threats by Beijing, particularly in its aggressive stance towards Taiwan.
China has conducted numerous exercises to test what a blockade would look like of the self-governing island, which Beijing claims as its own and the US has pledged to defend.
China’s army “is rehearsing for the real deal”, Mr Hegseth said in a keynote speech at a security conference in Singapore.
“We are not going to sugarcoat it — the threat China poses is real. And it could be imminent.”
China has a stated goal of having its military have the capability to take Taiwan by force if necessary by 2027, a deadline that is seen by experts as more of an aspirational goal than a hard war deadline.
But China also has built sophisticated man-made islands in the South China Sea to support new military outposts and developed highly advanced hypersonic and space capabilities, which are driving the US to create its own space-based Golden Dome missile defences.
Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a global security conference hosted by the International Institute for Security Studies, Mr Hegseth said China is no longer just building up its military forces to take Taiwan, it’s “actively training for it, every day”.
Mr Hegseth also called out China for its ambitions in Latin America, particularly its efforts to increase its influence over the Panama Canal.
He urged countries in the region to increase defence spending to levels similar to the 5% of their gross domestic product European nations are now pressed to contribute.
“We must all do our part,” Mr Hegseth said.
He also repeated a pledge made by previous administrations to bolster US military capabilities in the Indo-Pacific to provide a more robust deterrent.
While both the Obama and Biden administrations had also committed to pivoting to the Pacific and established new military agreements throughout the region, a full shift has never been realised.
Instead, US military resources from the Indo-Pacific have been regularly pulled to support military needs in the Middle East and Europe, especially since the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
In the first few months of president Donald Trump’s second term, that has also been the case.
In the last few months the Trump administration has taken a Patriot missile defence battalion out of the Indo-Pacific in order to send it to the Middle East, a massive logistical operation that required more than 73 military cargo aircraft flights, and sent Coast Guard ships back to the US to help defend the US-Mexico border.
Mr Hegseth was asked why the US pulled those resources if the Indo-Pacific is the priority theatre for the US.
He did not directly answer but said the shift of resources was necessary to defend against Houthi missile attacks launched from Yemen, and to bolster protections against illegal immigration into the US.
At the same time, he stressed the need for American allies and partners to step up their own defence spending and preparations, saying the US was not interested in going it alone.
“Ultimately a strong, resolute and capable network of allies and partners is our key strategic advantage,” he said.
“China envies what we have together, and it sees what we can collectively bring to bear on defence, but it’s up to all of us to ensure that we live up to that potential by investing.”
The Indo-Pacific nations caught in between have tried to balance relations with both the US and China over the years.
Beijing is the primary trading partner for many, but is also feared as a regional bully, in part due to its increasingly aggressive claims on natural resources such as critical fisheries.
Mr Hegseth cautioned that playing both sides, seeking US military support and Chinese economic support, carries risk.
“Economic dependence on China only deepens their malign influence and complicates our defense decision space during times of tension,” Mr Hegseth said.
China usually sends its own defence minister to this conference, but Dong Jun did not attend this year in a snub to the US and the erratic tariff war Mr Trump has ignited with Beijing, something the US delegation said it intended to capitalise on.
“We are here this morning. And somebody else isn’t,” Mr Hegseth said.
Mr Hegseth was asked by a member of the Chinese delegation, made up of lower level officers from the National Defence University, how committed it would be to regional alliances. In some, China has a more dominant influence.
Mr Hegseth said the US would be open to engaging with any countries willing to work with it.
“We are not going to look only inside the confines of how previous administrations looked at this region,” he said.
“We’re opening our arms to countries across the spectrum — traditional allies, non-traditional allies.”
Mr Hegseth said committing US support for Indo-Pacific nations would not require local governments to align with the West on cultural or climate issues.
It is not clear if the US can or wants to supplant China as the region’s primary economic driver. But Mr Hegseth’s push follows Mr Trump’s visit to the Middle East, which resulted in billions of dollars in new defence agreements.
