Chinese officials accused U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth of deliberately attempting to "sow division" in the region after he described the country as an "imminent threat" during a defense conference in Singapore.
"There's no reason to sugar coat it," Hegseth declared during his keynote address at the Shangri-la Dialogue Defense Forum on Saturday, per The Guardian. "The threat China poses is real, and it could be imminent."
