China today sharply criticized US Defense Secretary Pete Hegsett for calling the Asian country's policies a threat to peace, accusing him of spreading a Cold War narrative.
The Foreign Ministry said Hegseth had attacked Beijing with defamatory accusations the previous day at a global security conference.
The statement also accuses the US of inciting conflict and confrontation in the region.
"Hegset deliberately ignored the call of countries in the region for peace and development and instead spread the Cold War narrative. No country in the world deserves to be called a hegemonic power except the US itself," the statement said.
Hegseth said in Singapore on Saturday that Washington would strengthen its defenses abroad to counter what the Pentagon sees as rapidly evolving security threats from Beijing, particularly its aggressive stance toward Taiwan.
"Without any pretense - the threat posed by China is real. And it could be imminent," Hegset said.
The Chinese Embassy in Singapore said Hegseth's speech was "imbued with provocations and incitement to conflict."
China has stressed that the Taiwan issue is entirely China's internal affair, saying the US "must not play with fire." It also said Washington had deployed offensive weapons in the South China Sea, "fanning the flames and creating tensions in the Asia-Pacific region" and "turning the region into a powder keg."
The United States and China reached an agreement last month to reduce US President Donald Trump's tariffs from 90 percent to 145 percent for 30 days, creating time for negotiators on both sides to reach a substantive agreement.
China has reduced tariffs on American goods from 125 percent to 10 percent.
It is uncertain, however, whether the truce in the trade war will last. Trump said in a social media post on Friday that he would no longer be "nice" with China on trade and accused Beijing of violating an unspecified agreement with the United States.
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