The cliches and projection of Chinese government propaganda have been out in full force in response to U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s statement of the obvious during a defense conference in Singapore: the People’s Republic of China is a threat to the Republic of China and other countries.
Hegseth observed that China’s army “is rehearsing for the real deal. We are not going to sugarcoat it—the threat China poses is real. And could be imminent” (ABC News, June 1, 2025).
He was referring to China’s ongoing military drills in the Taiwan Strait to practice invading and/or blockading Taiwan and to China’s bullying of the Philippines and other countries in the region of the South China Sea or Indo-Pacific. He may also have had in mind further cyberattacks and other assaults that China could launch against ROC allies like the United States if and when it starts a war with Taiwan.
[China’s] foreign ministry said Hegseth had vilified Beijing with defamatory allegations the previous day before at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a global security conference. The statement also accused the United States of inciting conflict and confrontation in the region.
“Hegseth deliberately ignored the call for peace and development by countries in the region, and instead touted the Cold War mentality for bloc confrontation,” it said, referring to the post-World War II rivalry between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union.
“No country in the world deserves to be called a hegemonic power other than the U.S. itself,” it said, alleging that Washington is also undermining peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific….
The Chinese statement stressed that the Taiwan question is entirely China’s internal affair, saying the U.S. must “never play with fire” with it. It also alleged Washington had deployed offensive weaponry in the South China Sea, was “stoking flames and creating tensions in the Asia-Pacific” and “turning the region into a powder keg.”
In a Facebook post on Saturday, China’s Embassy in Singapore said Hegseth’s speech was “steeped in provocations and instigation.”
Hegseth had also said at the summit that “any attempt by Communist China to conquer Taiwan by force would result in devastating consequences for the Indo-Pacific and the world” and that the U.S. regards the Indo-Pacific as a “priority theater.”
“We do not seek conflict with Communist China. We will not instigate nor seek to subjugate or humiliate. President Trump and the American people have immense respect for the Chinese people and their civilization, but we will not be pushed out of this critical region. And we will not let our allies and partners be subordinated and intimidated.”
Newsweek quotes warring think-tankers on the question of China’s troublemaking in the South China Sea and other regions.
Da Wei, director of the Center for International Security and Strategy, previously told Newsweek: “What I want to stress is we are on the path to better relations with regional countries—so we don’t need the U.S. to teach us.”
Bonnie Glaser, managing director, U.S. Indo-Pacific Program’s German Marshall Fund, previously told Newsweek: “Hegseth described Chinese coercion and aggression against Taiwan and the South China Sea more clearly than any prior U.S. defense secretary. Those are facts, not confrontational posturing.”
Whether a full-scale mainland assault of whatever kind on Taiwan is really imminent has been much-debated. The hegemonic PRC keeps acting as if it’s getting ready to go to war against the ROC if the latter won’t surrender peacefully. But this has been true for years.
