Hegseth downplays China warnings: “We respect their wishes,” but “the position has not changed on Taiwan”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth downplayed previous claims that China was a threat during a visit to Singapore on Saturday, but told allies that the region “has a significant impact on US security and prosperity.”

As the US has done for decades, Hegseth tried to walk the line between not provoking China’s leaders and not alienating Taiwan. Unlike last year, Hegseth said the US respects China’s ambitions in the region.

“I think our message today was very much in line with where the president wants to go, which means that we will be strong, but we can speak softly while carrying that big stick and make it clear that there are areas where we can work with China,” Hegseth told reporters after his speech on stage. “We respect their wishes, we know that they have an important military force that comes with things that we have to take as an independent nation to make sure that we are ready for any eventuality, and at the same time, our position has not changed on Taiwan.”

Speaking to a group of world leaders, diplomats and senior security officials at the Shangri-La defense conference in Singapore, Hegseth said Washington’s priority is “achieving lasting and positive power in the Pacific.”

It was the second time he spoke at the forum, which was hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Last year, China was angry directly referring to the country as a “threat” to Taiwan, which China saw as such part of a large country while Taiwan believes itself to be independent.

“We can’t sugarcoat it – the threat posed by China is real,” Hegseth said last year. “And it might be close.”

Those comments prompted a backlash from a Chinese military official, who called some of Hegseth’s claims “absolute nonsense.”

However, this year, the meeting comes to an end two weeks after US President Donald Trump visited Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, after which Trump called Xi a “great leader” and said they would have a “great future together.”

Hegseth says China will not be allowed to dominate the region

Hegseth, who was with Trump in Beijing, said the two leaders agreed that China and the US must “build a constructive relationship of strategic stability, based on fairness and accountability, ensuring that although our countries will protect our respective interests, we can find effective and beneficial agreements where our interests are aligned.”

However, he said it is still a priority for America to ensure that China is not allowed to dominate the Indo-Pacific.

“There are legitimate fears about China’s military buildup and expansion of its military activities in the region and beyond,” he said.

“We share a clear-eyed assessment of that security environment and a common understanding that a Pacific dominated by any hegemon will disempower the region and undermine the balance we all want to preserve.”

During the day, Maj. Gen. China’s Meng Xiangqing praised Hegseth’s remarks about the meeting between Xi and Trump, saying the consensus reached by the leaders “should provide a strategic guide for China-US relations in the next three years and beyond.”

“When he met with President Trump, President Xi Jinping made it clear that constructive strategic stability should be a good type of stability that focuses on cooperation, a healthy type of stability where competition stays within reasonable limits, a general state of stability where tensions are managed and managed, and a lasting type of stability that gives hope for peace,” he said.

US Senator Tammy Duckworth, who is part of the congressional delegation to the summit, accused the Trump administration of “collusion” with China.

“I am concerned that these administrations are distracted from the wars they have started in other parts of the world because of our commitment here in the Indo-Pacific,” the Illinois Democrat told reporters on the sidelines.

“I’m concerned that it looks like our president is getting into, you know, policies where he’s doing what Beijing wants him to do,” he added.

After the meetings between Xi and Trump, the American president raised questions about Washington’s willingness to defend Taiwan, calling a new weapons package of 14 billion dollars that has not yet illuminated “a very good bargaining chip for us” with China.

China claims the self-governing island as its own, and Xi has not decided to use force to take it over. The US is required by law to help provide Taiwan with means of self-defense, although it follows a policy of “strategic ambiguity” about whether to intervene militarily if China were to attack the island.

Hegseth told the forum that there was “no change in our position” regarding Taiwan, but did not comment on the arms deal.

“Any decision on future arms sales to Taiwan, as the president said, will rest with him,” he said.

The US praises countries that have spent the most on defense

He echoed the Trump administration’s insistence that allies increase defense spending, saying “we need partners, not protectors.”

He praised several countries in Asia for their efforts, while also criticizing their European allies, without naming names, suggesting they were “distracted by the world’s empty talk about a rules-based international order.”

“Our Asian partners have long understood that the basis of a lasting partnership is not based on rational ideas but on the practical arrangement of the country’s interests,” he said.

“When our interests diverge, we adjust automatically, without drama or politeness,” he added. “I think that Western Europe may be aware – this is an attitude that we fully accept.”

Hegseth did not mention the war in Ukraine or Iran in his speech. When asked about Iran, he simply said that Trump had assured him that once the talks with Tehran were over, “any deal would be a good thing.”

Australia’s Defense Minister, Richard Marles, whose country was among those recommended by Hegseth for increasing military spending, said that although the order based on international law is not perfect, “the task before us, all of us, including the great powers, is to restore that order, not to dismantle it.”

“When the rules work, small states have agency,” Marles said in a speech following Hegseth’s. “When the laws allow power, sovereignty becomes, as some say, the aim of the powerful, and no empire in this room today, whatever its greatness, is well served by that result.”

UK, US and Australia announce new submarine drone program

At an event outside the conference, Hegseth, Marles and British Defense Secretary John Healey announced a new step in their AUKUS partnership, which focuses on the development and construction of nuclear-powered submarines.

Under the so-called second pillar of AUKUS, the three said they would jointly invest in the development of advanced capabilities for underwater drones.

“Together we are developing advanced sensors or weapons systems for underwater drones,” Healey said, adding that it will help detect threats including underwater cables and pipelines.