US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth delivered a hawkish speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue 2025 summit, demonizing China as a “threat”, saying, “We are preparing for war” in the Asia-Pacific region.
Thank you Ben Norton for your always well written and researched rtitcles. The fallacy inherent in Hegseth's and others approach to China is blatantly obvious. Arming yourself for peace is stupid. Dialogue and diplomacy is what is needed. China wants to expand its trade, and does not seek hegemonic powers. It is important that you point that out so well.
China is not a threat to the American people. It is perceived as a threat by the corporations and weapons manufacturers because it is so far advanced ahead of the de-industrialized U.S. China has thousands of miles of high-speed rail and the U.S. cannot even manage one line from San Francisco to Los Angeles after 14 years of delays. The U.S. is industrially incompetent.
Heggie is an unqualified clown. The US military hasn't defended the nation since 1812. In every war since it was all about profit. We don't have a powerful military. We have a weak expensive overextended military on over 800 foreign bases.
Our arms makers are running a racket. They design weapons to line pockets instead of winning.
USA will lose, why are they doing this??? We have shit going on in our country… is this an attempt to distract us from the incredible levels of corruption like the bank rolling the state of Israel to the point of our own country’s demise, and so they can install Chinese like surveillance in our country while we are at it”war” … what the hell is going on!?
Hate for China is one of the few traditional biPartisan policies in the US.
It is not new.
It predates all Communist States.
The Federal Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 underlines the general bigotry in the US against China, although travelers and diplomats were still allowed in the country.
And the country, The People's Republic of China, has an economic system that is NOT Communist, no matter how many times the Ignorant or the propagandists call it "Communist China".
The USA out-competed the USSR and was able to waste more money on the military (and its adventures) than the Soviets. The US system won over the inefficiency of a collectivist economy.
Now, the USA has been out-competed by the government-assisted Capitalist system, the aggregate brain power and productivity, of China, despite recent US Federal schemes to goose the tech sector, reduce corporate taxes, and subsidize consumers other industries and hype the economy with outrageously huge deficit spending programs the did the average person very little good
Has the US learned to pursue self-defeating policies like Germany (which closed perfectly safe nuclear power plants and celebrated the destruction of the Norstream 2 Gas pipeline, by flirting with huge tariffs (and other sanctions) on the countries (Russia and China) that can supply resources and tech that the US cannot obtain elsewhere and cannot manage for itself (like fast trains, ceramic magnets, and rare metals). It is intelligent or downright stupid for US politicians to routinely directly threaten the China and Russia ( whose exports are necessary to support military strength) with frequent verbal and physical threats and actions?
Is this smart?
Are they expected to "cry Uncle (Sam)" out of fear, and ruin their countries because the US wants to be #1?
Has the USA given up competing economically and intelligently? Certainly the Biden Administration did. At least some in the Trump administration talk WITH those they compete with, while the Neocons talk AT them and talk ABOUT them to demonize them.
Meanwhile, the US literacy rate is declining and poverty and homelessness seems to have increased. Doesn't it seem like the US needs to fix itself and stop the spending on things that do not help Americans, and mind its own business so it can fix itself?
This feels less like strategy and more like inertia. Both parties keep repeating the same lines about “deterrence” and “peace through strength,” but no one seems willing to ask whether permanent U.S. military presence in Asia is sustainable,or even useful long-term.
Framing economic ties with China as a threat just pushes countries into a false binary. Most governments in the region aren’t looking for a protector or a fight,they’re trying to survive between two superpowers that both want loyalty without offering real space for independence.
If everything is reduced to “preparing for war,” then diplomacy becomes theater, and countries lose the ability to shape their own futures.
Thank you Ben Norton for your always well written and researched rtitcles. The fallacy inherent in Hegseth's and others approach to China is blatantly obvious. Arming yourself for peace is stupid. Dialogue and diplomacy is what is needed. China wants to expand its trade, and does not seek hegemonic powers. It is important that you point that out so well.
Pete and many other members of the Trump administration are suffering from paranoid delusions.
When oh when will the USA stop interfering and making wars? This one they will not win.
The last war the US won was Grenada!
China is not a threat to the American people. It is perceived as a threat by the corporations and weapons manufacturers because it is so far advanced ahead of the de-industrialized U.S. China has thousands of miles of high-speed rail and the U.S. cannot even manage one line from San Francisco to Los Angeles after 14 years of delays. The U.S. is industrially incompetent.
Heggie is an unqualified clown. The US military hasn't defended the nation since 1812. In every war since it was all about profit. We don't have a powerful military. We have a weak expensive overextended military on over 800 foreign bases.
Our arms makers are running a racket. They design weapons to line pockets instead of winning.
USA will lose, why are they doing this??? We have shit going on in our country… is this an attempt to distract us from the incredible levels of corruption like the bank rolling the state of Israel to the point of our own country’s demise, and so they can install Chinese like surveillance in our country while we are at it”war” … what the hell is going on!?
Hope China wins😆
Hate for China is one of the few traditional biPartisan policies in the US.
It is not new.
It predates all Communist States.
The Federal Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 underlines the general bigotry in the US against China, although travelers and diplomats were still allowed in the country.
And the country, The People's Republic of China, has an economic system that is NOT Communist, no matter how many times the Ignorant or the propagandists call it "Communist China".
The USA out-competed the USSR and was able to waste more money on the military (and its adventures) than the Soviets. The US system won over the inefficiency of a collectivist economy.
Now, the USA has been out-competed by the government-assisted Capitalist system, the aggregate brain power and productivity, of China, despite recent US Federal schemes to goose the tech sector, reduce corporate taxes, and subsidize consumers other industries and hype the economy with outrageously huge deficit spending programs the did the average person very little good
Has the US learned to pursue self-defeating policies like Germany (which closed perfectly safe nuclear power plants and celebrated the destruction of the Norstream 2 Gas pipeline, by flirting with huge tariffs (and other sanctions) on the countries (Russia and China) that can supply resources and tech that the US cannot obtain elsewhere and cannot manage for itself (like fast trains, ceramic magnets, and rare metals). It is intelligent or downright stupid for US politicians to routinely directly threaten the China and Russia ( whose exports are necessary to support military strength) with frequent verbal and physical threats and actions?
Is this smart?
Are they expected to "cry Uncle (Sam)" out of fear, and ruin their countries because the US wants to be #1?
Has the USA given up competing economically and intelligently? Certainly the Biden Administration did. At least some in the Trump administration talk WITH those they compete with, while the Neocons talk AT them and talk ABOUT them to demonize them.
Meanwhile, the US literacy rate is declining and poverty and homelessness seems to have increased. Doesn't it seem like the US needs to fix itself and stop the spending on things that do not help Americans, and mind its own business so it can fix itself?
Interesting analysis.
This feels less like strategy and more like inertia. Both parties keep repeating the same lines about “deterrence” and “peace through strength,” but no one seems willing to ask whether permanent U.S. military presence in Asia is sustainable,or even useful long-term.
Framing economic ties with China as a threat just pushes countries into a false binary. Most governments in the region aren’t looking for a protector or a fight,they’re trying to survive between two superpowers that both want loyalty without offering real space for independence.
If everything is reduced to “preparing for war,” then diplomacy becomes theater, and countries lose the ability to shape their own futures.
No brainwashing for presidents!
https://open.substack.com/pub/juli2a5i4/p/no-brainwashing-for-presidents?r=1pk0jl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
... he is also Zionist moron
Trump/Hegseth are a clear and present danger to humanity!
Consider the source.
Post-WWII: The U.S. conducted 469 military interventions since 1798, with 251 occurring after 1991
China has been regionally assertive but not globally bellicose, with most actions tied to territorial disputes or countering U.S. influence. https://www.perplexity.ai/search/despite-a-number-of-other-cris-brCjg6GvR7SM8EEVdNBETA
Total dicks