US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday delivered a dire warning to the Asia-Pacific region and the world: China’s designs on Taiwan pose a threat to global peace and stability that requires “our allies and partners do their part on defense.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned on Saturday that the threat from China was real and potentially imminent as he pushed allies in the Indo-Pacific to spend more on their own defence needs.

Trump's former ambassador to Vietnam highlighted the main reason China may hesitate to strike a trade deal with the U.S.

The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, has totally violated its agreement with us," said Trump.

But a U.S. official told Reuters that it appears China was moving slowly on promises to issue export licenses for rare earths minerals. The deal called for China to lift trade countermeasures that restrict its exports of the critical metals needed for U.S. semiconductor, electronics and defense production.

China on Saturday criticised as a "double standard" attempts to link the defence of Ukraine with the need to protect Taiwan from a Chinese invasion - a thinly veiled reference to a speech by French Emmanuel Macron in Singapore on Friday night.

French President Emmanuel Macron made the remarks as the U.S. is considering withdrawing troops from Europe to shift them to the Indo-Pacific.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon sounded a warning Friday on the fractious US relationship with China — and on “the enemy within.”