Pentagon 'concerned China will instigate' avoidable conflict: DepSecDef

The U.S. is not trying to goad China into a military conflict, the Pentagon’s no. 2 official said Friday, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s remark last summer that he thinks the U.S. is trying to bait him into invading Taiwan so the U.S. can step in.In the waning weeks of her tenure, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks told an audience at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies that the U.S. is watching its words and actions when it comes to China,