{"id":15184,"date":"2025-03-28T15:02:28","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T15:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/28\/on-first-asia-trip-us-defense-chief-hegseth-calls-for-deterrence-in-face-of-china-threats\/"},"modified":"2025-03-28T15:02:28","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T15:02:28","slug":"on-first-asia-trip-us-defense-chief-hegseth-calls-for-deterrence-in-face-of-china-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/28\/on-first-asia-trip-us-defense-chief-hegseth-calls-for-deterrence-in-face-of-china-threats\/","title":{"rendered":"On first Asia trip, US defense chief Hegseth calls for \u2018deterrence\u2019 in face of China \u2018threats\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cm8s70ce6003q2cp747f2f4uc@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            Deterrence is necessary in Asia in the face of \u201cthreats from the Communist Chinese,\u201d US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in Manila on Friday as he opened his first visit to Asia in his role under a cloud of scrutiny for discussing American war plans on Signal.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cm8s77yuo00033b6mb7c63u5h@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            The US has an \u201cironclad commitment\u201d to the US-Philippines alliance, Hegseth said in opening remarks ahead of a meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand \u201cBongbong\u201d Marcos Jr.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cm8s77yuo00043b6mlo05zowy@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            \u201cFriends need to stand shoulder to shoulder to deter conflict and ensure there\u2019s free navigation whether you call it the South China Sea or the West Philippine Sea,\u201d Hegseth said, referring to the strategic, resource-rich waterway that China claims most of.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cm8s77yuo00053b6m1akbsuzy@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            The defense chief visit comes as the Trump administration has signaled their aim to prioritize \u201cdeterring war with China.\u201d Hegseth warned US allies in Europe earlier this year that Washington can no longer be primarily focused on security on that continent as it looks to its \u201cpeer competitor\u201d in Asia and the US southern border.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cm8s77yuo00063b6m56dub8l2@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            The Philippines has been on the front lines of China\u2019s increasingly aggressive posture in Asia. Beijing seeks to assert its claim over the bulk of the South China Sea, despite an international ruling denying its sovereignty over the waterway.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cm8s77yuo00073b6mskwj5lvj@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            Hegseth will also visit US ally Japan during his tour, which comes as he seeks to tamp down controversy around his decision to share information about US military strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen on the commercial messaging app Signal.    <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<div>This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Deterrence is necessary in Asia in the face of \u201cthreats from the Communist Chinese,\u201d US&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}