China responds after Hegseth warns to prepare for war
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth participates in an announcement by President Donald Trump about moving forward with the Golden Dome missile defense shield in the Oval Office of the White House on May 20, 2025. File photo by Chris Kleponis/UPI | License Photo
June 1 (UPI) -- China criticized the United States on Sunday for having a "Cold War mentality" after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared to warn that the U.S. is prepared to go to war to prevent China from dominating the Indo-Pacific region in a speech Saturday.
"Hegseth 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 'threat,'" a spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"The remarks were filled with provocations and intended to sow discord. China deplores and firmly opposes them and has protested strongly to the U.S."
Hegseth had delivered his remarks during the International Institute for Strategic Studies Shangri-La Dialogue event in Singapore. He said the Indo-Pacific region is the United States' "priority theater" and won't allow China to push it and its allies out of the region.
China retorted Sunday that "no country in the world deserves to be called a hegemonic power other than the U.S. itself."
"To perpetuate its hegemony and advance the so-called 'Indo-Pacific strategy,' the U.S. 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 and making countries in the region deeply concerned," the Foreign Ministry spokesperson said.
Hegseth had also said that China was "preparing to use military force" to alter the balance of power in the region and appeared to indicate that the United States would step in to defend Taiwan if China were to attack it.
Mainland China and the island of Taiwan, among other islands, were ruled by the Republic of China before the ROC lost the Chinese Civil War in the early 20th century to the Chinese Communist Party, which established the new government of the People's Republic of China in October 1949.
The ROC in turn established a temporary capital in Taipei on the island of Taiwan, a former Japanese territory, in December 1949 that served as the seat for China at the United Nations until it was replaced by the People's Republic of China in 1971 when foreign countries switched their diplomatic relations.
China views self-governed Taiwan and its 23 million residents as a wayward province and has vowed to retake it by force, if necessary. Many supporters of Taiwan have since argued that it is already an independent sovereign state separate from mainland China, which has never controlled Taiwan.
Tensions between the United States and China started to grow during the administration of President Joe Biden in 2022 when then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, sparking a military response from the Chinese government and increased drills in the Taiwan Strait. In 2022, a four-star general predicted that the U.S. and China could be at war by the end of this year.
After returning for his second term, President Donald Trump's administration has escalated tensions with China, particularly related to trade tariffs that appear now to be expanding into broader military and diplomatic arenas.
For example, the Pentagon has increased naval patrols in contested areas of the South China Sea and bolstered military partnerships with allies including Japan, Australia, and the Philippines.
"The Taiwan question is entirely China's internal affair. No country is in a position to interfere. The U.S. should never imagine it could use the Taiwan question as leverage against China," the Foreign Ministry spokesperson said. "The U.S. must never play with fire on this question."
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'Perilous hour': World reacts after US bombs Iranian nuclear sites Russia, China condemn US attacks on Iran Russia and China on Sunday condemned the U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear sites, the countries' foreign ministries said. "The irresponsible decision to subject the territory of a sovereign state to missile and bomb attacks, whatever the arguments it may be presented with, flagrantly violates international law, the Charter of the United Nations and the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council," the Russian foreign ministry said in its statement. "We call for an end to aggression and for increased efforts to create conditions for returning the situation to a political and diplomatic track." Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, launching a drawn-out conflict that is ongoing over three years later. Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, recently suggested that the "whole of Ukraine" belongs to his country, even though Russia only controls about a fifth of Ukrainian territory. China's foreign ministry said the move violates the United Nations Charter and would worsen tensions in the Middle East. The ministry urged an end to attacks for all parties to the conflict, particularly Israel. What we know about the US strikes on Iran Trump ordered the strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, effectively joining a war that Israel started on June 13 when it started bombing Iranian nuclear and military infrastructure. One of the U.S. targets was Fordow, a uranium enrichment facility hidden deep inside a remote mountain in the desert. Nuclear sites at Natanz and Isfahan were also struck. Israel said it helped the U.S. coordinate and plan the strikes. Trump said all three sites were "totally obliterated" but an independent assessment has not yet been carried out. The International Atomic Energy Agency − the United Nation's nuclear watchdog − released a statement saying that so far it had not detected an increase in "off-site radiation levels," one of the feared consequences of the strikes. What will Iran do now? Iran's next move is being closely watched. The country has already ramped up its rhetoric. "Iran reserves all options to defend its sovereignty, interest, and people," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said. Ahead of the U.S. strikes, Tehran signaled that if the Pentagon were to join Israel's war U.S. military bases and Navy ships in the region could be attacked. Iran has a large arsenal of drones and ballistic missiles. It has been using these on Israel for days. It launched a fresh wave of missiles toward Israel hours after the U.S. bombing started. Iran might even opt for a diplomatic route, which Trump was encouraging prior to authorizing the U.S. attack. Contributing: Reuters
