US Secretary for Defence Pete Hegseth put the cat amongst the pigeons during a speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on May 31, by telling the leading Asian countries they should join with the US and get ready for war with China.

“This was easily one of the most unhinged and fear-mongering speeches by a Pentagon chief in Asia ever, with relents of the worst times of the Cold War,” said political commentator and bne IntelliNews columnist Arnaud Bertrand.

Hegseth focused on China’s growing power in SE Asia and its “one China” policy of uniting what Beijing says is a breakaway Taiwan with the mainland – by force if necessary.

"Any attempt by Communist China to conquer Taiwan by force, will result in devastating consequences for the Indo-Pacific region and the world," Hegseth said. "The threat that China poses is real, and it could be imminent."

The Trump administration has become increasingly focused on its rivalry with China and imposed crushingly high tariffs on Beijing as part of the Liberation Day tariffs in April. Seen as the US’ biggest rival, Hegseth said that the US also wants to beef up its security ties in Asia to  counter China’s growing influence.

"President Trump has also said that Communist China will not invade Taiwan on his watch. Our goal is to prevent war, to make the cost too high and peace is the only option." "As our allies share the burden, we can increase our focus on the Indo-Pacific: our priority theatre," Hegseth said.

Hegseth started his speech by saying that "for a generation, the United States ignored this region" because they were "distracted by open-ended wars, regime change, and nation building" elsewhere.

“Good start to the speech And, interesting coincidence, that very generation during which the US "ignored" Asia corresponds to the region's most peaceful and prosperous period in centuries. And to catastrophic wars and entire nations destroyed where the US chose to focus their efforts instead. Strange, isn't it?” said Bertrand.

Hegseth told the delegates at the conference that has changed now and the US is doing its utmost to "shift our focus to this region" in order to answer "the threat China poses".

The futures of the US and its Indo-Pacific allies are "bound together," Hegseth went on, and “the security and prosperity of Americans are linked to the security and prosperity of US ally countries' citizens. We share your vision of peace and stability, of prosperity and security and we are here to stay," he added.

Hegseth also hinted that part of the reason Trump was pulling back from supporting Ukraine in its struggle with Russia was to free up more resources for the Indo-Pacific region.

“How does Hegseth define this "China threat" he's so worried about? As an "alteration of the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific", the US being "pushed out of this critical region" and China "conquering Taiwan by force,” asks Bertrand. “In short, the "China threat" is... China daring to become more powerful than the US in its own neighbourhood.”

Hegseth advocated a "peace through strength" approach, and like in Europe, “insists” the countries of the region ramp up military spending to 5% of GDP.

The speech went down badly with most of the delegates from leading countries in the ASEAN countries, who mostly have strong investment in, and trade ties with China.

However, Hegseth took a swipe at these pragmatic relations. He warned that countries in the region should "beware" of "the idea of seeking both economic cooperation with China and defence cooperation with the United States," because of "the leverage that the CCP seeks with that entanglement."

“The lack of self-awareness is hilarious: the guy is literally threatening and "insisting" everyone in the region ramp up military spending to 5% of GDP to align with US defence priorities at their expense, while in the same breath warning them about Chinese economic leverage,” says Bertrand.  “At heart this is the US determined to prevent China, the only great power to ever reach this status peacefully, from continuing to modernise and develop itself - because in their zero-sum view of the world the very idea that 1.4bn people might achieve prosperity without American dominance is apparently intolerable.”