Pentagon chief says ready to ‘fight and win’ against China, urges Asian allies to boost defense spending

SINGAPORE — Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth on Saturday warned that the U.S. was prepared to “fight and win” against China if deterrence efforts failed, while urging Asian allies to strengthen military coordination and raise defense spending.

Speaking at the annual defense summit Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, U.S. Defense Secretary Hegseth stressed Washington’s resolve to bolster defense capabilities at a time when regional warfare has flared up around the world, including Russia’s war in Ukraine and the military conflict in Gaza.

While playing up the U.S.’ commitment to the Indo-Pacific region, Hegseth took swipes at the absence of China’s defense minister. “We are here this morning. Somebody else isn’t,” he said.

Hegseth urged political and defense leaders in the audience to act with urgency in pushing back against China’s mounting military pressure in the South China Sea and around Taiwan.

“China has demonstrated that it wants to fundamentally alter the region’s status quo. We cannot look away and we cannot ignore it. China’s behavior toward its neighbors and the world is a wake up call and an urgent one,” said Hegseth.

“We ask, and indeed, we insist that our allies and partners do their part on defense,” said Hegseth, adding that “our defense spending must reflect the dangers and threats that we face today, because deterrence doesn’t come on the cheap.”

The sharp rhetoric comes against the backdrop of increasing trade frictions between Washington and Beijing as optimism over a deal following a temporary tariff truce secured earlier this month wanes.

U.S.-China trade talks “are a bit stalled,” and would warrant the two countries’ heads to weigh in Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News Thursday.

China’s activities in the South China Sea undermine sovereignty and threaten freedom of navigation and overflight while its ongoing military operations near Taiwan signal a clear intent to escalate pressure on the island, the Pentagon leader said.

He also vowed to step up security nearer to the U.S., eliminating China’s “malign” influence over Panama Canal. “It is key terrain, after all, China did not build that canal. We did, and we will not allow China to weaponize it or control it.”

China in March said it was prepared to fight “any type of war” with the U.S., as President Donald Trump ratcheted up economic and political pressure on the country. “If war is what the U.S. wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end,” the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. said in a post.

China’s Defense Minister Dong Jun was absent from this year’s summit — the first time Beijing’s top military official has skipped the event since 2019. Beijing instead sent a lower-ranking delegation, led by Major General Hu Gangfeng, Vice President of National Defense University of People’s Liberation Army.

Major General Hu is expected to participate in a special session later Saturday on cooperative maritime security in the Asia-Pacific.

The absence of China’s top military official has cast doubts over whether there will be a bilateral meeting between Chinese and the U.S. defense officials.

Last year then-U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Dong held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the security forum, where both sides agreed to maintain military dialogue.

The absence of Beijing’s defense minister could be an attempt to avoid engagement and conflict with the U.S. on flashpoints like Taiwan and the South China Sea, experts said.

“Beijing always wants to control the narrative and discourse. Shangri-La does not enable that,” said Drew Thompson, senior fellow at RSIS Rajaratnam School of International Studies and a former U.S. official at the Defense Department.

“When I was at DoD, my PLA counterpart once explained to me what they didn’t like. He said, ‘we don’t like being made out to be gladiators fighting one another for others’ entertainment. We want to deal with our differences bilaterally, in channels, not in public forums,'” he added.

Beijing sees limited strategic benefits in sending its top defense officials to the annual summit, instead it is focused on deepening ties through alternative forums without U.S. presence, Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University, told CNBC earlier this month. That’s according to CNBC’s translation of his comments in Mandarin.

The U.S. government plans to ramp up weapon sales to Taiwan to a level beyond the $18.3 billion authorized during Trump’s first term, surpassing the $8.4 billion approved under President Biden, according to Reuters.

The proposed arms packages will focus on cost-effective systems such as missiles, munitions, and drones, as part of an effort to enhance Taiwan’s deterrence capabilities as Beijing ramps up pressure on the democratic island.

The U.S. has been an important ally and arms supplier to Taiwan for decades, with Beijing calling on Washington to halt such actions and stop creating tensions in the Taiwan Strait.

Beijing claims Taiwan as its territory and has vowed to “reunify” with the democratically governed island, by force if necessary. Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims.

For years, China has been steadily ramping up its military pressure to assert its sovereignty claims over Taiwan, regularly sending aircraft and naval vessels near the island.

Dong warned at the Shangri-La Dialogue last year that any forces aimed at separating Taiwan from China would face “self-destruction” and stressed the Taiwan issue as “the core of our core interest.”

Concerns have mounted over Trump’s commitment to the island too. On the election campaign trail, Trump had suggested Taiwan should pay for U.S. protection and accused it of siphoning off America’s semiconductor industry, raising alarm in Taipei.