The United States does not seek conflicts with communist China but will resolutely safeguard its interests in the Indo-Pacific region, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun in a meeting on Sept. 9.
Hegseth made it clear that the United States “does not seek conflict with China nor is it pursuing regime change or strangulation of the PRC,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement, using the abbreviation of the communist regime’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.