Singapore - Defense Minister Pete Hegseth on Saturday raised a clear warning about China's threat to the status quo in Asia. He said the U.S. is reorienting its power and policies to stop China and coaxing its neighbors and U.S. allies to help.

"For all Beijing, it must be clear that Beijing is preparing to use military power to change the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific," Hegseth told civilians and military officials during the annual Shangri-La dialogue at Asia's highest defense summit.

Hegseth insists that the United States does not seek conflict and does not intend to "rule or strangle China, surround or provoke." “We don’t seek regime change.”

The previous U.S. government also provided similar guarantees to Beijing. But retired Chinese senior colonel, Colonel Zhou Bo, now a senior fellow at the Center for International Security and Strategy at Xindua University in Beijing, said he believes Hergs' speech is "more hostile than any of his predecessors in the Shangri-La La conversation and full of "ideological competition."

Zhou added that Heggs' speech in Singapore was more supportive of U.S. allies than Vice President Vance at the Munich Security Conference in February. Therefore, Zhou asked: "Which one should we really believe in?"

Re-concentrate U.S. military posture in China

Heggs said the United States is "repositioning Communist China's aggression."

This means the U.S. can withdraw some of South Korea’s 28,500 U.S. troops to deal with China, including in a potential conflict between mainland China and Taiwan, which the Pentagon calls “the only rhythm scene.”

Since the main threat to the South comes from North Korea, the U.S. interests may be different from those of South Korea.

"I do think we're likely to see a change in force posture on the peninsula. I think the government has started to show that publicly," said Zack Cooper, a senior fellow at the American College of Enterprise in Washington, D.C., who is attending the Shangri-La conversation.

He added: "I think the message from the Trump administration is everything South Korea does in China. The reality is that the interests of the United States and South Korea are far beyond what South Korea does to China."

"U.S. First" Defense Policy

Hergers' emphasis on U.S. priorities echo President Trump's remarks about "America First". The Defense Secretary slammed the Biden administration's policies as "ruthless" while praising President Trump's keen men as a trader and working to seal its borders to a "invasion" of illegal immigrants.

"We are here to put no pressure on other countries to embrace and adopt our politics or ideology," Heggs told rally leaders and military officials.

Heggs acknowledges that geography makes it necessary for Asian countries to rely on China economically while seeking defense cooperation with the United States

"But beware of the CCP (the Communist Party of China) seeking this entangled leverage," he warned. "The economic dependence on China will only deepen their vicious influence and complicate our defense decision-making space in times of tension."

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said his country would remain non-aligned and opposed demarcating major powers in areas of influence. He said Malaysia will continue to welcome the U.S. presence in the region, but will continue to attach importance to its ties with China.

"What Southeast Asia needs is a dynamic balance, which makes it impossible to have forced cooperation and no group politics," he said.

European leaders warn of double standards

In a speech at the forum the night before Hegseth's speech, French President Emmanuel Macron criticized U.S. policy and encouraged countries to maintain strategic autonomy in the U.S.-China competition.

"We want to cooperate. But we don't want to be directed every day because of one's decisions, how our lives will change," he said, apparently suggesting Trump.

Macron also rejected the rush to defend Taiwan’s double standards, an autonomous island that China claims to be part of its territory while abandoning Ukraine, a move that would undermine the United States’ own credibility.

China's embassy in Singapore reshoots on its Facebook page, "Comparing the Taiwan issue with the Ukraine issue is unacceptable," the Taiwan issue is China's internal affairs.

"If we use double standards to look at double standards, we still get double standards," it said.

In response to Hergers' comments, the embassy said in another Facebook post that the United States claims to maintain peace rather than seek conflict. We've heard it. Let's see what actions will be taken. ”