Hinting at China's increasing cyber attacks and predatory economics, US defence secretary Pat Shanahan says the idea is to not be confrontational, but being open to having a dialogue
Pat Shanahan
Washington: In his first major public appearance in Asia, Acting US Defence Secretary Pat Shanahan said on Saturday that Washington would no longer "ignore Chinese behaviour" in the Asia-Pacific region, calling its activity a "tool kit of coercion".
Speaking at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue security summit, Shanahan also said that, despite Beijing's militarisation of disputed islands in the South China Sea, its alleged attempts to conduct cyber-attacks on other nations and its engagement in "predatory economics and debt-for-sovereignty deals", he wanted a better military-to-military relationship.
"I think in the past people have tiptoed around Chinese activity in the region," the Acting Defence Secretary told the audience during the question-and-answer period after his remarks. "It's not about being confrontational. It's about being open and having a dialogue."
In describing China during his address before defence leaders in Asia, Shanahan said that "perhaps the greatest long-term threat to the vital interests of states across this region comes from actors who seek to undermine, rather than uphold, the rules-based international order".
But later in his speech, Shanahan said there were areas where China "could still have a cooperative relationship with the US", such as counter-piracy and enforcing UN sanctions on North Korea.
"The Indo-Pacific is our priority theatre. We are where we belong," he added. Over the next five years, the Pentagon would invest "significantly" in programmes needed to ensuring regional stability, he said.
"When we talk about preparedness, we mean having the right capabilities in the right places to respond to crises, and to compete with and deter high-end adversaries,"he said.
"We want to ensure no adversary believes it can successfully achieve political objectives through military force," he said.
125bn
Amount the Pentagon has requested for operational readiness in the next fiscal year
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