China accuses US’s Hegseth of ‘vilifying’ remarks at security forum

BEIJING: China has protested to the United States against “vilifying” remarks made by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, the foreign ministry said on Sunday, while accusing it of deliberately ignoring calls for peace from regional nations.

China 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 “deplorable”. “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’,” the ministry said on its website.

“The 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,” it added in the statement. China’s defence ministry also weighed in, saying the US is “accustomed to using” the forum to “stoke disputes, sow discord and seek selfish interests”.

“China’s armed forces will work with other countries in the region to oppose hegemonism harming the Asia-Pacific region,” ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang said in a statement posted on the ministry’s WeChat account. Hegseth had urged allies in the Indo-Pacific region, including key security partner Australia, to spend more on defence after warning of the “real and potentially imminent” threat from China.