Beijing (AP) – China on Sunday condemned U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for calling Asian nations a threat, accusing him of further escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing, touting his Cold War mentality.
The Foreign Ministry said Hegseth had been defamatory allegations of violating Beijing on defamatory charges during a Shangri-La dialogue at the Global Security Conference the day before. The statement also accused the United States of inciting conflict and confrontation in the region.
“Hergs deliberately ignored the calls from countries in the region for peace and development, but instead touted the Cold War mentality for a group confrontation,” it said.
It said: “No country in the world should be called hegemonic power.”
Hegseth said in Singapore on Saturday that Washington will strengthen its defense capabilities overseas to deal with what the Pentagon believes is threatening to Beijing’s rapid development, especially its positive stance on Taiwan.
Heggs said China's military “is rehearsing for the real deal.” “We're not going to icing – the threat posed by China is real. It's probably imminent.”
China's statement stressed that the Taiwan issue is entirely a matter of China's internal affairs, saying that the United States must “never be with fire.” It also allegedly deployed offensive weapons in the South China Sea, which are “burning flames and creating tensions in the Asia-Pacific region” and “turning the region into powder kegs.”
In a Facebook post on Saturday, China's embassy in Singapore said that Hergs' speech was “immersed in provocation and incitement.”
The United States and China reached a deal last month to reduce tariffs on U.S. President Donald Trump from 145% to 90 days, thus providing time for negotiators on both sides to reach a more substantial agreement. China also lowered the tax rate on U.S. goods from 125% to 10%.
However, it is uncertain whether the trade war armistice will continue. Trump said in a social media post on Friday that he will no longer be “good” with China on trade and accused Beijing of unspecified agreement with the United States
Tensions escalated after the U.S. said on Wednesday it would begin revoking visas for Chinese students studying there.
Additionally, French President Emmanuel Macron warned that linking the Taiwan issue to Ukraine’s war, and that the Chinese embassy criticized Singapore for linking the Taiwan issue to Ukraine’s war to warn dangerous double standards to focus on potential conflicts with China while harming Ukraine.
The Embassy did not mention Macron in its Facebook post, including a photo showing the French president on a Singapore forum.
“If we try to denounce 'double standards' through a lens of double standards, then the only result we can get is still a double standard,” it said.
China usually sends its defense minister to the Shangri-La Forum, this time it sent a low-level delegation led by Major General Hu Ganfen, vice president of the National Defense University of the People's Liberation Army.
