Singapore - Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth warned Saturday that the U.S. is ready to "fight and win" against China if the deterrent efforts fail, while urging Asian allies to strengthen military coordination and increase defense spending.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Hesse said during the Shangri-La dialogue at the annual defense summit in Singapore, emphasizing Washington's determination to break out in defense capabilities around the world as the world war broke out at the time, including Russia during the Ukrainian war and Gaza military conflict.

Hegseth waved without the Chinese Defense Secretary as the US commitment to the Indo-Pacific region. "We're here this morning. Others aren't," he said.

Hegseth urged audience political and defense leaders to take urgent action to oppose China's military pressure in the South China Sea and near Taiwan.

"China has proven that it wants to fundamentally change the status quo in the region. We cannot look away, we cannot ignore it. China's behavior towards neighboring countries, the world is a wake-up and urgent call."

“We asked, indeed, we insist that our allies and partners play their role in defense,” Heggs said, adding: “Our defense spending must reflect the dangers and threats we face today because deterrence is not cheap.”

The sharp rhetoric is amid the growing trade friction between Washington and Beijing, as optimism about deals after a temporary tariff truce was secured earlier this month.

U.S.-China's trade negotiations "a bit stagnant" and guaranteed both countries' heads to Fox News on Thursday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News.

Pentagon leaders say China's activities in the South China Sea undermine sovereignty and threaten freedom of navigation and off-road freedom, while military operations near Taiwan clearly state pressure to escalate the island.

He also vowed to strengthen security near the United States and eliminate China's "vicious" impact on the Panama Canal. "After all, this is the main terrain, and China didn't build that canal. We did, we don't allow China to weaponize or control it."

China said in March that it was ready to fight the United States as President Donald Trump put economic and political pressure on the country. "If war is what the United States wants, whether it is a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we are ready to fight until the end," the U.S. Embassy in the United States said in an article.

Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun missed this year's summit - Beijing's top military official skipped the event for the first time since 2019. Beijing sent a lower-level delegation led by Hu Gangfeng, vice president of the National Defense University of the People's Liberal University of the Ministry of National Defense.

Major General HU is expected to attend a special meeting later on Saturday to participate in cooperative maritime security in the Asia-Pacific region.

Senior military officials absent from China expressed doubts about whether a bilateral meeting between China and U.S. defense officials would be held.

Last year, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Dong held a bilateral meeting among the onlookers of the Security Forum, both sides agreed to maintain military dialogue.

Experts say Beijing's defense minister's absence may be an attempt to avoid engagement and conflict with the United States at flashpoints such as Taiwan and the South China Sea.

"Beijing always wants to control narratives and discourse," said Drew Thompson, a senior fellow at the RSIS Rajaratnam School of International Studies and a former official at the Ministry of Defense.

He added: "When I was at the Ministry of Defense, my PLA counterpart once explained to me what they didn't like. He said, 'We don't like being picky gladiators fighting each other for entertainment. We want to deal with our differences on the channel, not in public forums," he added.

Beijing believes there are limited strategic benefits in sending its top defense officials to the annual summit, but instead focuses on deepening ties through alternative forums without the United States. This is based on the translation of CNBC's comments about him in Mandarin.

According to Reuters, the U.S. government plans to raise arms sales to Taiwan to a level above $18.3 billion authorized by Trump in the first semester, exceeding the $8.4 billion approved by President Biden.

The proposed weapon package will focus on cost-effective systems such as missiles, ammunition and drones as part of a deterrent capability in Taiwan as Beijing increases pressure on Democratic Island.

The United States has been a major ally and arms supplier to Taiwan for decades, and Beijing calls on Washington to stop such actions and stop creating tensions in the Taiwan Strait.

Beijing claims Taiwan is its territory and vows to "reunite" with democratically managed islands when necessary. The Taiwan government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims.

China has steadily increased military pressure for years to claim its sovereignty over Taiwan and regularly dispatched aircraft and naval ships to the vicinity of the island.

In a Shangri-La dialogue last year, warning that any force aimed at separating Taiwan from China would face "self-destruction" and stressed that the Taiwan issue is "the core of our core interests."

The commitment to Trump to the island has also attracted attention. During the election campaign, Trump had suggested that Taiwan should pay the price for US protection and accused it of getting involved in the US semiconductor industry, causing alarm in Taipei.