By AFP and Focus | 2025-06-03

China's rising military power and aggressive posture toward Taiwan took center stage at Asia's top security summit.

At the three-day Shangri-La Dialogue, which concluded on June 1 in Singapore, defense chiefs and world leaders confronted Beijing's assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific.

From Washington to Paris, Canberra to Berlin, participants raised alarms over China's expanding military capabilities and intensifying pressure on Taiwan and the South China Sea -- flashpoints they warned could spark future conflict.

Six years since the launch of its vision for a "free and open Indo-Pacific," the United States used this year's security summit in Singapore to outline a more assertive strategy under the Trump administration's second term.

In a keynote address on May 31, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth delivered a stark warning about the potential for armed conflict in Asia.

"The threat China poses is real and it could be imminent," Hegseth declared. He said Beijing was "credibly preparing to potentially use military force to alter the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific," accusing the Chinese military of actively building the capability to invade Taiwan and "rehearsing for the real deal."

Framing China's regional conduct as a "wake-up call," Hegseth listed cyberattacks, harassment of neighboring countries, and "illegally seizing and militarizing lands" in the South China Sea among Beijing's actions that endanger peace.

Hegseth urged Asian allies to ramp up defense spending toward 5% of GDP, emphasizing the need to prepare for a potential large-scale regional conflict and increasing burden sharing.

"Asian allies should look to countries in Europe for a newfound example," he said, calling for immediate steps to upgrade capabilities across the Indo-Pacific.

Hegseth reaffirmed US commitment to regional allies, stating the Indo-Pacific remains "America's priority theater" and asserting that "China cannot dominate us -- or our allies and partners."

"Hegseth's remarks on Chinese pressure against Taiwan and the South China Sea claimants were the most strident from a US defense secretary in a Shangri-La Dialogue speech," said Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

She views these descriptions as based on fact, not confrontational posturing, she told the Wall Street Journal.

'Spheres of coercion'

Officials and leaders from other nations denounced Chinese aggression too.

French President Emmanuel Macron used his May 30 speech at the dialogue to urge Europe and Asia to unite against coercive geopolitical maneuvers, widely interpreted as criticism of China and Russia.

"We have a challenge of revisionist countries that want to impose -- under the name of spheres of influence -- spheres of coercion," Macron said. He urged leaders to "build a positive new alliance between Europe and Asia, based on our common norms, on our common principles."

Allowing territorial seizures in Ukraine without consequences would set a dangerous precedent for Taiwan and other regions, he said.

"How would you phrase what could happen in Taiwan?" he asked. "What would you do the day something happens in the Philippines?"

Germany and Australia joined the call for regional vigilance over China's military expansion.

German Chief of Defense Lt. Gen. Carsten Breuer told Bloomberg that Germany is committed to supporting the "rules-based international order" and safeguarding "freedom of navigation" in the Indo-Pacific.

Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles emphasized that "what we have seen from China is the single biggest increase in military capability and build-up in conventional sense by any country since the end of the Second World War."

He called on Beijing to offer strategic transparency regarding its intentions.

Low profile

China's Foreign Ministry criticized Hegseth's speech and said it had lodged "solemn representations with the US side."

This year, China kept a notably low profile at the forum.

Defense Minister Dong Jun did not attend, and a plenary session on "China's Global Security Partnerships" was canceled, according to the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.

Rear Adm. Hu Gangfeng, vice president of the National Defense University of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and leader of the Chinese delegation, condemned what he described as actions aimed at "stirring up trouble, creating division, inciting confrontation and destabilizing the Asia-Pacific."

The delegation declined to hold press briefings and seldom engaged with other delegations on site.

As regional anxiety mounts, China's military posturing has continued.

In May, the PLA deployed two aircraft carrier strike groups and over 70 naval and coast guard vessels across the Yellow Sea, East China Sea, Taiwan Strait and South China Sea -- operations described as extreme pressure tactics targeting Taiwan and its allies.

While Hegseth addressed the forum, China's military simultaneously announced "combat readiness patrols" around the disputed Scarborough Shoal.