HEGSETH: CHINA THREAT ‘COULD BE IMMINENT’: In his first major policy address in the Indo-Pacific, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a pointed, but strategically ambiguous, warning to China not to act on its long-stated desire to make the self-governing island of Taiwan part of the mainland under Beijing’s rule.

“Any attempt by Communist China to conquer Taiwan by force would result in devastating consequences for the Indo-Pacific and the world. There’s no reason to sugarcoat it. The threat China poses is real,” Hegseth said in a keynote address at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue defense conference in Singapore on Saturday. “And it could be imminent. We hope not. But it certainly could be.”