United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Saturday cautioned that China was "credibly preparing to potentially use military force" in a bid to reorder the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific.

Hegseth was speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's premier defense forum, being held in Singapore.

China's army is "rehearsing for the real deal," the Pentagon chief said, highlighting how the Indo-Pacific region was a priority for President Donald Trump's administration.

"We are not going to sugarcoat it — the threat China poses is real. And it could be imminent," he said.

Hegseth pushes Asian allies to boost defense spending

Hegseth reassured Washington's allies in the Indo-Pacific region that they would not be abandoned to tackle the growing military and economic pressures from Beijing.

He called on the Asian allies to bolster their own defense spending, adding that "deterrence doesn't come on the cheap."

"It's hard to believe a little bit... that I'm saying this, but thanks to President Trump, Asian allies should look to countries in Europe for a newfound example," said Hegseth, pointing to pledges by NATO members including Germany to move toward Trump's spending target of 5% of GDP, which is a higher percentage of GDP than the US currently spends on defense.

US defense secretary on China's territorial ambitions

Hegseth on Saturday said any attempt by China to invade Taiwan "would result in devastating consequences for the Indo-Pacific and the world."

Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered the People's Liberation Army to be able to take Taiwan by 2027, a deadline which experts view more as an aspirational goal than a hard war deadline.

Beijing claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own territory.

The US defense secretary reiterated Trump's remark that China would not conquer Taiwan under Trump's watch.

Hegseth also called out China for its power designs in Latin America, particularly its efforts to step up its influence around the Panama Canal.

No top Chinese official at Asia's largest defense summit

Beijing, which sends its defense minister to the annual conference, put forth a lower-level delegation this year, snubbing Washington over Trump’s tariff war. 

"We are here this morning. And somebody else isn't," Hegseth remarked, with the US delegation saying that they intended to capitalize on China’s absence. 

The Chinese delegation, which was composed of lower-level officers from the National Defense University, asked the US Defense Secretary how committed his country would be to regional alliances. China has a stronger influence in some nations of the region. 

Hegseth said the US was open to engaging with nations willing to work with it. 

"We are not going to look only inside the confines of how previous administrations looked at this region," he said. "We're opening our arms to countries across the spectrum — traditional allies, non-traditional allies."

Edited by: Sean Sinico and Wesley Dockery