China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday.
“Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail reindustrialization in the US and strangle its economy.
Photo: EPA-EFE
US President Donald Trump’s “peace through strength” strategy is the proper response, Hegseth said, adding that the stagnant US defense industrial base must be revitalized.
“China is undertaking a historic military buildup and actively rehearsing for an invasion of Taiwan,” he said, adding that only by having the world’s most powerful and lethal military — focused on protecting key US interests — can it effectively deter adversaries and win a potential conflict.
Caine said that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is demonstrating its capabilities through military pressure, with operations targeting Taiwan becoming larger, and more frequent and complex.
“These aggressive maneuvers are not routine exercises, they are rehearsals for a forced unification,” he said.
Hegseth’s and Caine’s comments aligned with warnings by US Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific fleet.
The Financial Times reported that Paparo last month told a forum that China is diversifying its military exercises at a rapid rate.
The implementation of integrated deterrence is one of the factors that would help maintain peace and stability across the Indo-Pacific region and the Taiwan Strait, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) told the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee in Taipei yesterday.
Koo said he read Hegseth’s written testimony to the subcommittee.
To implement his concepts, Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities are a vital component, Koo said.
The Ministry of National Defense is keeping close tabs on PLA exercises because Beijing might switch from exercises to invasion, Koo said.
Chinese military exercises, whether announced or unannounced, are increasing in scale, he said.
Asked whether the Han Kuang exercises in July would take precautions against the possibility of China switching gears as they are being conducted, Koo said that the exercises have been extended to 10 days and nine nights.
The drills cover all bases, including a reaction to “gray zone” tactics, he added.
The military’s focus has been on reacting to the outbreak of war, but it is now discussing military reactions to “gray zone” tactics and how danger levels should be determined for incidents, he said.
We cannot assume that China would control incidents within the range of “gray zone” tactics, he said, adding that after the Han Kuang exercises, the ministry would determine what adjustments need to be made to the military.
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