It had little to do with taxes, tariffs or visas. The U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth essentially laid out American security and strategic vision in the Indo Pacific and at the same time spelling out Washington’s expectations of its allies and friends in the area. Hegseth would have lost no sleep in Beijing’s accusations of him trying to sow division in Asia in an address at the Shangri-La Dialogue that in its view was “filled with provocations.” 

At the Singapore security summit, Hegseth stressed that the security and prosperity of America is linked to that of its allies in the region and that the future vision is one grounded in common sense and national interests. “We share your vision of peace and stability, of prosperity and security and we are here to stay.” The “we are here to stay” is perhaps what Asian allies and friends would have liked the most especially when questions have been raised in the past of American commitment. 

What perhaps irritated Beijing most was Hegseth’s blunt assessment of China saying that it was “credibly preparing to potentially use military force to alter the balance of power in the Indo Pacific” and in a rehearsal for the “raw deal” of invading Taiwan. “There’s no reason to sugar coat it. The threat China poses is real and it could be imminent,” the senior Trump administration official remarked. And one way to counter this threat, Hegseth would argue, is for Asia to up military spending from the current levels of 1.5 percent of GDP to the desired 5 percent.  

The threat from China to the Indo Pacific is something that nations in the area are quite aware of; and this goes more than the occasional bombast over Taiwan. Beijing is quite active militarily in and around the South China Seas over Spratlys dispute and at times aggressively challenging countries like Vietnam and the Philippines who are also claimants. China refuses to abide by the Law of the Seas Convention on territorial limits and insists at times that it has jurisdiction of up to 1000 nautical miles from its shores. 

The concern of China gets beyond South China Seas dispute to dangers of navigation in a zone that it critical for the movement of super tankers carrying crude oil. Bilaterally China has been courting smaller nations in South East Asia and the South Pacific for berthing facilities for its ever-expanding Navy and submarine forces; and in then process triggering concerns in countries like Australia, Vietnam and the Philippines. The Defense Secretary made it plain that Washington is not seeking a conflict with China. “… But we will not be pushed out of this critical region, and we will not let our allies and partners be subordinated and intimidated.”

Aside from its rhetoric over Taiwan and frequently talking of others “playing with fire,” China has also used its proxy North Korea to keep East Asia on the edge especially pertaining to South Korea and Japan. Aside from firing missiles that end up near the coast of Japan, Pyongyang frequently boasts of a missile range that could target even major American cities. The hate filled rhetoric against Seoul has also been a constant reminder of a troublesome neighbor in the North that will find difficult to just survive in the absence of backing from Beijing, and now from Russia.

China which sent an academic delegation to this year’s Dialogue tried to paint Hegseth’s remarks as trying to bring about the Cold War mentality in Asia. In fact, for quite some time now Beijing has been going to town whipping up the notion that Washington is hell bent on bringing the Asian version of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or the Asian NATO into the Indo Pacific as a way of countering China. This especially after the United States, Australia, Japan and India came up with the QUAD and in its success especially since 2017 with the endorsement of President Donald Trump in his first term. 

The idea of an Asian NATO hardly had any enthusiastic endorsement even when it was vaguely proposed last year by Japan and for a well-known reason: South East and East Asia will not be comfortable with Tokyo playing a prominent role given what transpired in the Second World War. The consensus then and now being that Indo Pacific is best served only through strong economic collaboration, not by any formal military alliance. 

China may have ripped into the comments of Hegseth or given the cold shoulder to this year’s major security meet in Singapore, but the message of the United States seemed to resonate in the Pacific. “What we have seen from China is the single biggest increase in military capability and buildup in a conventional sense by any country since the end of the second world war. That is one of the key features of the complexity of the strategic landscape which all of us face within the region and which is faced around the world,” Australia’s Defense Minister Richard Marles has been quoted.

Hegseth’s blunt and yet measured comments on the China threat and the challenges of the Indo Pacific has to be seen in the context of  global problems, especially as it pertains to the vexing issue of the Russia-Ukraine conflict which is now in its fourth year; and a general frustration in Washington that the principals are yet to get down to serious business for a ceasefire. And that brings up the question of American-European strategic cooperation. Hegseth’s remarks in Singapore are an eye-opener to the region and beyond. 

Disclaimer: The opinions and views expressed in this article/column are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of South Asian Herald.

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