Beijing warns Australia to not follow Trump administration on defence

China has denounced American-led ‘small circles’, including AUKUS and the Quad, as senior security analysts in Beijing warn Australia against ceding to pressure from the Trump administration to ramp up defence spending.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles and their counterparts from The Philippines and Japan on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. Picture: Getty Images

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Beijing has denounced American-led “small circles”, including AUKUS and the Quad, as senior Chinese security analysts warn Australia against ceding to pressure from the Trump administration to ramp up defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP to counter China.

After a flurry of meetings and speeches in Singapore on the sidelines of Asia’s premier security conference, the Shangri-La Dialogue, China’s Defence Ministry accused Washington of “form[ing] small circles and engag[ing] in bloc confrontation”.

Those comments followed a speech by American Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and the disclosure of a joint meeting he later held with Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles and their counterparts from The Philippines and Japan.

Hours later, Washington released a readout of a separate meeting between Mr Hegseth and Mr Marles that revealed the senior Trump official had asked Australia to almost double defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP.

Zhou Bo, a retired senior col­onel in the People’s Liberation Army, said Australia was in a “difficult situation” as it came under pressure from the Trump administration while it tried to maintain relations with China, its top trading partner.

“You have to walk on a tightrope. Your future is deeply embedded in this region, which is the centre of gravity for economic prosperity,” Mr Bo, a senior fellow at Tsinghua Univer­sity’s Centre for International Security and Strategy in Beijing, told The ­Australian.

Mr Zhou said Australia needed to be careful it did not follow the US into a conflict with the PLA in contested areas around China.

“Is it necessary for you to follow the US to challenge China? If you do not go to China, there’s no way China would come to Australia to fight against you,” he said.

“This is a moment for Australia to do some soul-searching.”

Zhou Bo, a retired senior colonel in the People’s Liberation Army, at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Picture: Will Glasgow

In a keynote speech at the weekend, Mr Hegseth spoke far more bluntly about the prospect of China using military force to “conquer Taiwan” than his predecessors in the role. “There’s no reason to sugar-coat it,” he said.

“The threat China poses is real. And it could be imminent. We hope not. But it certainly could be.

“If deterrence fails, and if called upon by my Commander in Chief, we are prepared to do what the Department of Defence does best – fight and win, decisively.”

That was a notable departure from more restrained language used by Biden administration defence secretary Lloyd Austin at the same security conference last year. “War or a fight with China is neither imminent, in my view, or unavoidable,” he said in 2024.

Anthony Albanese used similarly nuanced language in his keynote speech at the 2023 Shangri-La Dialogue. “To move from imagining conflict is impossible to assuming war is inevitable is just as harmful to our shared goals,” the Prime Minister said.

Asked about the American request to ramp up defence spending, Mr Albanese on Monday said the Australian government would stick to its current plan.

Defence Minister Richard Marles with US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, left, at the 2025 Shangri-La Dialogue.

Mr Zhou, a delegate at this year’s Shangri-La Dialogue, praised the moderation of the current Australian government.

“I think this government’s position is a correction from the Morrison government, which I think is good for you,” he said.

Last November, the China Daily singled out Mr Albanese, saying he was a model for other American allies engaged in the difficult “balancing act” between their security partner in Washington and their economic relationship with China.

However, Mr Zhou said Australia’s involvement in the AUKUS defence technology grouping remained a sore spot with Beijing, which views it as even more provocative than the Quad grouping with the US, India and Japan. “The Quad is because of China. AUKUS is against China,” he told The Australian. “China doesn’t like AUKUS at all.”

Beijing’s umbrage in the wake of the Shangri-La Dialogue has focused on the Trump administration, but it has included coded swipes at groupings involving the US and Australia, including the Quad and AUKUS, which it refers to as “small circles”.

Zhang Xiaogang, a spokesman for China’s Defence Ministry, said in a statement on Sunday that the US defence chief’s speech was “rife with deeply ingrained hegemonic logic” and a “Cold War mentality”.

“For its own selfish interests, the US launches tariff wars and trade wars, forms small circles and engages in bloc confrontation, causing deep concerns among countries. It also strengthens military deployments in the Asia-­Pacific, rudely interferes in the internal affairs of other countries and triggers tensions,” he said.

Spokesman for China’s Ministry of National Defence, Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang

China’s Defence Minister did not attend this year’s dialogue in Singapore for reasons not made clear by Beijing.

The official Chinese delegation was led by members of China’s National Defence University, who on Sunday accused The Philippines of using its smaller size to “extort” its giant neighbour.

Meng Xiangqing, a professor at the National Defence University of the People’s Liberation Army and member of the official Chinese delegation, claimed China would never “bully small nations”.

“However, [China] will also never tolerate or permit certain countries to engage in unscrupulous behaviour to extort or exploit larger nations through illicit means,” he said.