Pete Hegseth

SHANGRI-LA DIALOGUE 2026

US’ Hegseth hails Asian partners for boosting security spending; omits Taiwan in roll call

Major General Meng Xiangqing (front, left), the head of the Chinese official delegation, leaving a special session at the Shangri-La Dialogue on May 30.
NEWS ANALYSIS

What China hears in Hegseth’s Shangri-La Dialogue speech

China's Defence Minister Dong Jun at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on May 31, 2024.

China’s defence minister again skips Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore attended by US’ Hegseth

“This is not Iraq, this is not endless,” Hegseth said. “Our generation knows better and so does this president.

Hegseth denies Iran campaign will turn into endless war

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, speaking in May at the Shangri-La defence conference in Singapore, warned that China was “credibly preparing to potentially use military force to alter the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific.”

Pentagon chief Hegseth set to visit Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam and South Korea

In a video posted on X on Friday, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said he was initiating a two-week review to ensure China-based engineers were not working on any other cloud services contracts across the Defence Department.

Microsoft to stop using engineers in China for tech support of US military, Hegseth orders review