Beijing Loves Hegseth’s Conciliatory Tone at Shangri-La, Forecasting New Trans-Pacific Relationship

America’s defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has changed his tune about Communist China’s role in the Indo-Pacific region, and the Chinese are delighted.“What we seek,” Mr. Hegseth said at the Shangri-La Dialogue at Singapore, is “a favorable, but durable, balance of power in which no state — including China — can impose its hegemony and hold the security or prosperity of our nation and our allies in question.”That remark, the closest Mr. Hegseth came to repeating his warning at last year’s Shangri-La about Chinese aggression, was mild enough for the head of the Chinese delegation, Meng Xiangqing, to hope that China and America “will move in the same direction,” as reported by the Global Times, published by China’s People’s Daily.A retired major general, now a professor at China’s National Defense University, Mr. Meng saw Mr. Hegseth’s remarks as fortifying “the consensus reached by the two heads of state,” Mr. Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping, at their summit earlier this month at Beijing, the paper reported. Rather than military confrontation, he forecast that the two would “promote military-to-military relations along a healthy, stable, and sustainable path.”Mr. Meng’s statement, clearly worked out with the blessing of authorities in Beijing, carried no hint of the fiery rhetoric uttered by Mr. Hegseth at the Shangri-La gathering a year ago when he warned that “any attempt by Communist China to conquer Taiwan by force would result in devastating consequences for the Indo-Pacific and the world.” China, Mr. Hegseth said at that low point in Sino-American relations, “seeks to become a hegemonic power in Asia … to dominate and control too many parts of this vibrant and vital region.”Like Mr. Hegseth, Mr. Meng at this year’s Shangri-La did not mention Free Taiwan, the island democracy that China claims as a Chinese province and America remains committed to defend. Instead, he looked ahead to “a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability” in which the two giants, from opposite sides of the Pacific, could engage in “well-managed competition” with “differences kept under control, and enduring stability that holds the promise of lasting peace.”The tone of Mr. Ming’s remarks made clear the Chinese were relieved that Mr. Trump, for now, has put off approval of the sale to Taiwan of $14 billion in arms. The response of Mr. Meng and other Chinese commentaries left no doubt that Mr. Xi sees Beijing and Washington as getting along just fine as long as America does not go on arming Taiwan, which it has done under terms of the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979.The Chinese, however, were not happy about a meeting between Mr. Hegseth and Japan’s defense minister, Shinjiro Koizumi at which the Japanese network NHK News reported they ”agreed to promote cooperation in strengthening the deterrence and response capabilities of the alliance between their countries.”Mr.Koizumi reminded Mr. Hegseth of Prime Minister Takaichi Koizumi’s meeting with Mr. Trump at the White House in March at which NHK reported that they “agreed on a wide range of security cooperation initiatives to step up the Japan-U.S. alliance.” Among them: Japan’s relaxation of its ban on export of lethal weapons.Mr.Meng, reflecting Chinese alarm over Japan’s renaissance as a major military power, inveighed against “the emerging manifestation of Japanese militarism,” according to the Global Times.A former Chinese ambassador to America, Cui Tiankai, Global Times reported, said Taiwan remains “the most important and sensitive core question in China” – a reminder of Mr. Xi’s warning of “clashes and conflicts” that could break out surrounding the island. “The road is long,” said Mr. Cui, “and everything must be done step by step.”It was up to Vietnam’s president, To Lam, who also is general secretary of the nation’s Communist Party, to hint at another hyper-sensitive problem — China’s claim to the entire South China Sea including waters off Vietnam where the Chinese are drilling for oil and gas.Mr. Lam did not mention China, but Vietnam is not happy about China’s infringement on resources that the Vietnamese believe are rightfully theirs. “The seas and oceans do not only stand for resources; but they are also the shared spaces of connection and the lifelines of global trade, energy, food and supply chains,” he said. “No country benefits when these routes become theaters of coercion, confrontation or displays of power.”

Beijing Loves Hegseth’s Conciliatory Tone at Shangri-La, Forecasting New Trans-Pacific Relationship

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