China slams Hegseth for calling the country a threat

Beijing (AP) – China denounced the US Secretary for Defense Pete Hegseth on Sunday for Call the Asian country a threataccusing him of praising a Cold War mentality like Tensions between Washington and Beijing degenerate more.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said HegSeth vilified Beijing with defamatory allegations the day before Shangri-La dialogue, a world security conference. The press release also accused the United States of encouraging conflicts and confrontation in the region.

“Hegseth deliberately ignored the call for peace and development by the countries of the region, and rather praised the mentality of the Cold War for the confrontation of the block,” he said, referring to the rivalry of the post-second world war between the United States and the former Soviet Union.

“No country in the world deserves to be called a hegemonic power other than the United States itself,” he said, alleging that Washington also undermines peace and stability in Asia-Pacific.

Hegseth told Singapore on Saturday that Washington will strengthen his defenses abroad to counter what the Pentagon considers rapid development threats of Beijing, in particular in his aggressive position towards Taiwan.

The Chinese army “repeats for the real affair,” said Hegseth. “We are not going to sugar – the threat that China poses is real. And it could be imminent. “

A “provocation” by Hegseth

The Chinese press release indicates that Taiwan’s question is China’s internal affair and that the United States should “never play with fire” with it. The declaration also alleged that Washington had deployed offensive weapons in the Southern China Sea, “attachment of flames and creating tensions in Asia-Pacific” and “transforming the region into a powder barrel”.

The spokesman Zhang Xiaogang of the Chinese Defense Ministry called Hegseth’s comments a provocation and said that they distort the political positions of China.

The United States and China had entered into an agreement last month Distribute the prices of US President Donald Trump from 145% to 30% For 90 days, creating time for negotiators on both sides to achieve a more substantial agreement. China has also reduced its taxes on American products from 125% to 10%.

But it is not certain that a trademark will last. Trump in an article on social networks on Friday said that he Do not be “kind” with China Regarding trade and accused Beijing of having broken an undeveloped agreement with the United States

Tensions went again after the United States said on Wednesday that it would start Revoke visas for Chinese students study there.

The question of the Philippines

At the Singapore forum on Sunday, the secretary to the Philippines de la Défense, Gilberto Teodoro, made fun of the idea that the United States was the problem.

The Philippines were involved in Increasingly violent clashes with China On competing complaints in the southern China Sea. Teodoro said what the Chinese government considered just could be contrary to the standards accepted by the rest of the world.

The Chinese Embassy in Singapore in separate Facebook publications described Teodoro’s remarks as “baseless accusations” and argued that the islands of the Southern China Sea are inherent territories of China.

The “troublemaker” is not China, he said, and quoted what he said to be recent illegal intrusions from the Philippines in the waters adjacent to two reefs.

“A little external power” represented the greatest threat to peace with the deployment of offensive weapons and the rope in allies for frequent military exercises, he said, without naming anyone.

“What country forced and intimidates others, and causes conflicts and a confrontation in the Southern China Sea? The answer is clear for everyone,” he said.

And then there was Macron

In addition, the Chinese Embassy in Singapore criticized the attempts on Saturday to link Taiwan’s question to that of the war in Ukraine after the French president Emmanuel Macron warned of a dangerous double standard by focusing on a potential conflict with China At the cost of abandoning Ukraine.

The embassy did not appoint Macron in his article on Facebook, but the message included a photo showing the French president of the Singapore forum.

“If we try to denounce the” double standard “through the objective of a double standard, the only result we can get is still the double standard,” he said.

China, which generally sends its Minister of Defense to the Shangri-La Forum, this time sent a lower level delegation led by Major-General Hu Gangfeng, vice-president of the population of the Army Army National Defense University.