Pete Hegseth warns Chinese military action against Taiwan ‘could be imminent’

US defence secretary Pete Hegseth warned that a Chinese military attack on Taiwan “could be imminent” as he called on America’s allies in the Indo-Pacific to boost defence spending as a further deterrence to Beijing.

Speaking at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue defence forum in Singapore on Saturday, Hegseth said China wanted to become a hegemonic power in Asia and was acting in a manner that should be an urgent “wake-up call”.

“Any attempt by Communist China to conquer Taiwan would result in devastating consequences for the Indo-Pacific and the world,” he said.

“There is no reason to sugarcoat it. The threat China poses is real, and it could be imminent. We hope not, but it certainly could be.”

US intelligence officials and military officers have said President Xi Jinping has told the Chinese military to develop the capability to invade Taiwan by 2027. But while they are increasingly worried about China’s rapid military rise, most officials stressed an attack was not imminent.

In his second trip to Asia as defence secretary, Hegseth said US partners in the region should follow the “newfound example” of Europe in pledging to boost defence spending, saying “time is of the essence”.

“It doesn’t make sense for countries in Europe to do that while key allies in Asia spend less on defence in the face of an even more formidable threat [from China], not to mention North Korea.”

Hegseth said no one should doubt the US commitment to its allies in the region and that the Indo-Pacific remained the “priority theatre” for the US,

While he accused Joe Biden of weakening the US, many of the policies he outlined appeared to be a continuation of measures introduced by the former president. Ely Ratner, the top Pentagon Asia official in the Biden administration, said apart from the rhetoric there was “near total continuity”.

Hegseth said the US did “not seek conflict” with China but would “not let our allies and partners be subordinated”. He noted that China was using its cyber capabilities to attack critical infrastructure in the US and beyond and was harassing its neighbours, including Taiwan, in the South China Sea.

“Xi has ordered his military to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027,” he added. “The [People’s Liberation Army] is building the military needed to do it, training for it every day and rehearsing for the real deal.”

Hegseth said many countries were “tempted by the idea of seeking both economic co-operation with China and defence co-operation with the US”. But he warned that economic dependence on China “complicates our decision space during times of tension or conflict”.

When asked what role European militaries should play in the Indo-Pacific, Hegseth said a “big one”, before adding that Washington would prefer they focus their efforts on the Euro-Atlantic region.

He said there was “something to be said for the fact that China . . . does not appreciate the presence of other countries [in the region] on occasion”, and it could be “useful” if Beijing factored the presence of European militaries into its calculus.

But he stressed: “We would much prefer that the overwhelming balance of European investment be on that continent.”

Kaja Kallas, the top EU foreign policy official, reminded the forum that former Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida had stressed that the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific theatres were connected and that countries in one region had a security stake in the other.

Kallas told the FT she had privately stressed to Hegseth that the two regions were “very much interrelated” from a security perspective.

“We are doing more for our own defence, but we need to be there for our partners [in Asia],” said Kallas, adding that EU interests in Asia ranged from maritime security to cyber security.

Kallas noted the economies of the EU, US and other countries that have concerns about China — Australia, Canada, India, Japan, South Korea, Mexico and New Zealand — totalled $60tn in scale, compared to $18tn for China. “That also becomes a military deterrent,” she said.

Kallas said the economic argument “resonated” with Hegseth. But she added that the trade wars launched by President Donald Trump were undermining efforts to counter China.

“They think that having these trade wars with everybody is making them stronger. I actually think that it’s making all the alliances and all the allies . . . weaker when you want to confront the economic power that China has,” Kallas said.

Kallas said she had asked Hegseth if the US was worried that its rhetoric — particularly over Taiwan — had the potential to spark a miscalculation in Beijing. He said the US did not see it that way and stressed that Washington was not seeking conflict with China, she said.

Zack Cooper, an Asia defence expert at the American Enterprise Institute think-tank, said Hegseth “hedged” his response on the European role in Asia.

“He seemed to suggest that a European presence in Asia could be helpful for deterrence of China, but also made clear that Europe should still prioritise operations in its own region,” Cooper said.

China hit back against Hegseth later on Saturday, accusing the US of trying to “provoke, split, instigate confrontation and stir up the region”.

Rear Admiral Hu Gangfeng, vice-president of China’s National Defense University, called his comments “fabrications reversing black and white” and said he was “a thief crying ‘catch the thief’”.