Pete Hegseth

SHANGRI-LA DIALOGUE 2026

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

He was addressing the security and defence forum on May 30

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

Major General Meng Xiangqing did not comment on the specific points raised by Hegseth at the SLD

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

CHINA’S top military diplomat will skip Asia’s biggest defence forum for a second year in a row, ceding to the US and its allies an opportunity for public defence diplomacy.

“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

“Our ambitions are not utopian – they are realistic,” says Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth

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

A key theme of Hegseth’s trip will be “America‘s focus on the Indo-Pacific, the Department’s priority theatre,” the Pentagon said

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 

[SAN FRANCISCO] Microsoft on Friday said it will stop using China-based engineers to provide technical assistance to the US military after a report in investigative journalism outlet ProPublica sparke...