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- The Chinese foreign ministry said Hegseth had vilified Beijing with defamatory allegations the previous day before at the Shangri-La Dialogue
BEJING: China on Sunday denounced US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for calling the Asian country a threat, accusing him of touting a Cold War mentality as tensions between Washington and Beijing further escalate.
The 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.
鈥淗egseth deliberately ignored the call for peace and development by countries in the region, and instead touted the Cold War mentality for bloc confrontation,鈥� it said, referring to the post-World War II rivalry between the US and the former Soviet Union.
鈥淣o country in the world deserves to be called a hegemonic power other than the US itself,鈥� it said, alleging that Washington is also undermining peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific.
Hegseth said in Singapore on Saturday that Washington will bolster its defenses overseas to counter what the Pentagon sees as rapidly developing threats by Beijing, particularly in its aggressive stance toward Taiwan.
China鈥檚 army 鈥渋s rehearsing for the real deal,鈥� Hegseth said. 鈥淲e are not going to sugarcoat it 鈥� the threat China poses is real. And it could be imminent.鈥�
The Chinese statement stressed that the Taiwan question is entirely China鈥檚 internal affair, saying the US must 鈥渘ever play with fire鈥� with it. It also alleged Washington had deployed offensive weaponry in the South China Sea, was 鈥渟toking flames and creating tensions in the Asia-Pacific鈥� and 鈥渢urning the region into a powder keg.鈥�
In a Facebook post on Saturday, China鈥檚 Embassy in Singapore said Hegseth鈥檚 speech was 鈥渟teeped in provocations and instigation.鈥�
The US and China had reached a deal last month to cut US President Donald Trump鈥檚 tariffs from 145 percent to 30 percent for 90 days, creating time for negotiators from both sides to reach a more substantive agreement. China also reduced its taxes on US goods from 125 percent to 10 percent.
But it鈥檚 uncertain if a trade war truce will last. Trump in a social media post on Friday said he would no longer be 鈥渘ice鈥� with China when it comes to trade and accused Beijing of breaking an unspecified agreement with the US
Tensions escalated anew after the US said on Wednesday it would start revoking visas for Chinese students studying there.
Separately, the Chinese Embassy in Singapore criticized attempts to link the issue of Taiwan with that of the war in Ukraine after French President Emmanuel Macron warned of a dangerous double standard in focusing on a potential conflict with China at the cost of abandoning Ukraine.
The embassy made no mention of Macron in its post on Facebook that included a photo showing the French president at the Singapore forum.
鈥淚f one tries to denounce 鈥榙ouble standards鈥� through the lens of a double standard, the only result we can get is still double standard,鈥� it said.
China, which usually sends its defense minister to the Shangri-La forum, this time sent a lower-level delegation led by Maj. Gen. Hu Gangfeng, the vice president of the People鈥檚 Liberation Army National Defense University.