On his first full day on the job, acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan told senior leaders at the Pentagon to "remember China, China, China,".

Shanahan made the comments during a special meeting of all the military service secretaries and the undersecretaries of defense.

His decision to urge the Pentagon's leadership to focus on the threat posed by China came just hours before he attended a Cabinet meeting at the White House, where he sat next to US President Donald Trump as Trump slammed Shanahan's predecessor James Mattis and the ongoing US military missions in Syria and Afghanistan.

[Source: CNN]