China issued a blistering response after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said "the threat China poses is real."

America reassured nervous Asian friends that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan was “neither imminent nor inevitable”. But in a dramatic shift on May 31st Pete Hegseth, the defence secretary, said the Chinese threat “could be imminent”;

China has it back at Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth after he described the country as a threat to the United States, amid growing tensions between Washington and Beijing."Hegseth deliberately ignored the call for peace and development by countries in the region,

China criticized the United States on Sunday for having a "Cold War mentality" after Pete Hegseth appeared to warn that the U.S. is prepared to go to war to prevent China from dominating the Indo-Pacific.

China on Sunday denounced U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for calling the Asian country a threat, accusing him of touting a Cold War mentality as tensions between Washington and Beijing further escalate.