U.S. Defense Chief Lauds China Ties, Then Sounds Alarm Over Beijing’s Aggression at ASEAN Meeting

A general view shows ministers at the ASEAN-United States Defence Ministers Hi-Tea at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defense Ministers' Meeting in Kuala Lumpur on November 1, 2025. (Photo by Hasnoor Hussain / POOL / AFP)

U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth conveyed two seemingly contradictory messages on China during his discussions with his Southeast Asian counterparts during the ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting (ADMM) in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.

On the one hand, Hegseth was downright effusive in his assessment of the current state of U.S.-China relations as reflected in a social media post on X:

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by Eric Olander

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