China hits back at Trump official Pete Hegseth for ‘sabre-rattling and fear-mongering’

China says US defence secretary’s remarks at Shangri-La Dialogue were ‘intended to sow division’

China has accused the US of "fear-mongering" after Donald Trump’s defence secretary Pete Hegseth said a Chinese invasion of Taiwan could be imminent.

China's foreign ministry objected to Mr Hegseth calling it a threat in the Indo-Pacific, describing his comments as "deplorable" and "intended to sow division".

Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, the American defence secretary said China was "actively training" every day to take Taiwan.

Beijing claims the self-governed island to be part of its territory and has not ruled out “reuniting” Taiwan with the mainland by force. China has stepped up military and political pressure to assert those claims in recent years, including ramping up the intensity of war games around the island.

Taiwan's president William Lai Ching-te, right, meets with Rep Bruce Westerman, chair of the House Natural Resources Committee in Taipei, Taiwan

Mr Hegseth said that China's army "is rehearsing for the real deal," adding: "We are not going to sugarcoat it – the threat China poses is real. And it could be imminent." He argued that China launching an invasion of Taiwan would have devastating consequences.

China said Mr "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 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," the ministry said in the statement.

Separately, China's ambassador to New Zealand criticised Mr Hegseth in a post on X, saying: "If this is not sabre-rattling or fear-mongering, then nothing is."

Wang Xiaolong said the defence secretary was "doing this to shore up the US’s imaginary continued dominance in the region", fan an arms race to promote business deals for the American military industry and disrupt peace and "nonpareil prosperity" in the region.

"However, it will be a stretch of imagination to think that many, if any at all, in the region would buy that unfounded, self-centric and delusional rhetoric," Mr Wang added.

Mr Hegseth had called on allies in the Indo-Pacific region, including key security ally Australia, to spend more on defence after warning of the "real and potentially imminent" threat from China.

Asked about the Trump administration’s call for him to boost defence spending, Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese said his government had pledged an extra A$10bn (£4.7bn) to defence, while rebuffing the idea of foreign pressure on the Australian budget. "What we'll do is we'll determine our defence policy," he told reporters on Sunday.

As part of Washington's longstanding defence ties with the Philippines, the US military this year deployed Typhon launchers that can fire missiles to hit targets in both China and Russia from the island of Luzon.

China and the Philippines contest sovereignty over some islands and atolls in the South China Sea, with growing maritime run-ins between their coastguards as both vie to patrol the waters.