Beijing protests to US against \u201cvilifying\u201d remarks made by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth
\n Beijing
\nReacting to US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth\u2019s allegations against Beijing at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Chinese defence ministry said on Sunday that Washington is \u201caccustomed to using\u201d the forum to \u201cstoke disputes, sow discord and seek selfish interests\u201d.
\n\u201cChina\u2019s armed forces will work with other countries in the region to oppose hegemonism harming the Asia-Pacific region,\u201d ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang said in a statement posted on the ministry\u2019s WeChat account.
\nChina has protested to the United States against \u201cvilifying\u201d remarks made by Hegseth, the foreign ministry said, while accusing it of deliberately ignoring calls for peace from regional nations.
\nChina has objected to Hegseth calling it a threat in the Indo-Pacific, the ministry added, describing his comments at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday as \u201cdeplorable\u201d.
\n\u201cHegseth deliberately ignored the call for peace and development by countries in the region and instead touted the Cold War mentality for bloc confrontation, vilified China with defamatory allegations, and falsely called China a \u2018threat\u2019,\u201d the ministry said on its website.
\n\u201cThe United States has deployed offensive weaponry in the South China Sea and kept stoking flames and creating tensions in the Asia-Pacific, which are turning the region into a powder keg,\u201d it added in the statement.
\nHegseth had urged allies in the Indo-Pacific region, including key security partner Australia, to spend more on defence after warning of the \u201creal and potentially imminent\u201d threat from China.
\nAsked about the call to boost defence spending, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his government had pledged an extra A$10 billion ($6 billion) to defence.
\n\u201cWhat we\u2019ll do is we\u2019ll determine our defence policy,\u201d he told reporters on Sunday, a transcript of his remarks showed.
\nAs part of Washington\u2019s longstanding defence ties with the Philippines, the US military this year deployed Typhon launchers that can fire missiles to hit targets in both China and Russia from the island of Luzon.
\nChina and the Philippines contest sovereignty over some islands and atolls in the South China Sea, with growing maritime run-ins between their coast guards as both vie to patrol the waters.
\nChina\u2019s delegation at the forum said \u201cexternal intervention\u201d was the biggest risk for stability in the South China Sea, saying the country had shown \u201cgoodwill and restraint\u201d through talks on the issue.
\n\u201cSome foreign powers have sent warplanes and warships to the South China Sea for so-called \u2018freedom of navigation,\u2019\u201d the state-backed Global Times newspaper cited Senior Colonel Zhang Chi from the PLA National Defence University as saying.
\nSuch actions infringed China\u2019s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, he added.
\nThe United States, Australia, Japan and the Philippines have conducted joint maritime operations in the busy waterway.
\nChina claims nearly all the South China Sea, including parts of the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
\nChina\u2019s foreign ministry also told the United States not to \u201cplay with fire\u201d on the question of Taiwan.
\nAny attempt by China to conquer Taiwan \u201cwould result in devastating consequences\u201d, Hegseth said in his speech to Asia\u2019s premier forum for defence leaders, military officials and diplomats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beijing protests to US against \u201cvilifying\u201d remarks made by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth Beijing Reacting to US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth\u2019s allegations against Beijing at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Chinese defence ministry said on Sunday that Washington is \u201caccustomed to using\u201d the forum to \u201cstoke disputes, sow discord and seek selfish interests\u201d. \u201cChina\u2019s armed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482328,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-482317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n