US will counter ‘disturbing' activity by China: Austin

Pentagon chief says strengthening alliances in region, including military drills, is one way

WASHINGTON • Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the US will stand up to an “increasingly assertive and autocratic” China in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond, calling China’s activity “disturbing”.

One way to counter China’s military modernisation, growing nuclear capabilities and technological advances is to strengthen US alliances in the region, the Pentagon chief told a security conference in California on Saturday, fresh from a visit to South Korea.

“The activity that we see in the region and other parts of the globe is disturbing,” Mr Austin said at the Reagan National Defence Forum in Simi Valley.

China is “acting to develop military capability as fast as it can, but some of the coercive activity we see in the region has us and our partners in the region very concerned”, he said.

On visits to seven countries in the Indo-Pacific region since becoming President Joe Biden’s defence chief, Mr Austin said he consistently heard Washington’s partners call for the US to “continue playing our stabilising role” there. “And make no mistake: we will.”