US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth stated on Tuesday that China poses a more aggressive threat to the US and that repelling Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority, despite its rapid military development and invasion manoeuvres near Taiwan, according to a Taipei Times report.

“Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defence during an oversight meeting with Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Dan Caine. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it may impede US reindustrialization and choke its economy.

Hegseth believes US President Donald Trump’s “peace through strength” strategy is the appropriate response, and that the stagnating US defence industrial base must be revitalised. “China is undertaking a historic military buildup and actively rehearsing for an invasion of Taiwan,” he said, adding that only having the world’s most powerful and lethal military, focused on protecting key US interests, can effectively deter adversaries.