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US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth told Asia’s biggest military conference that his country’s relations with China were “better than they’ve been in many years”, as he adopted a much less strident tone than at the same event 12 months ago.“President Trump and this administration seek a stable peace, fair trade and respectful relations with China,” Hegseth said on Saturday at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. The two countries agreed to “build a constructive relationship of strategic stability” at a recent presidential summit in Beijing, he said.Hegseth avoided mention of Taiwan in his 25-minute speech and didn’t refer to “Communist China”, in sharp contrast to last year when he emphasised that China posed a real and potentially “imminent” threat. There were also words of praise for countries including South Korea, the Philippines and Japan for increasing defence spending rather than the barrage of criticism that allies received in 2025.The defence secretary reaffirmed that US strategy in the Pacific is centred on “deterrence by denial” along the first island chain, which runs from Japan to the Philippines. He still presented China as a threat to stability, while using more measured words than last year.“There is rightful alarm regarding China’s historic military build-up and the expansion of its military activities in the region and beyond,” Hegseth said.He told the forum that there was “no change in our status” towards Taiwan in reply to a question after his speech. Still, he declined to comment on a pending US$14 billion arms sale to the island, beyond saying that the decision rests with the president.The US is required by law to help provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. Beijing sees the island as part of China, to be reunited by force if necessary.(Read the full text of Hegseth’s speech, along with those from China’s Major General Meng Xiangqing and Japanese Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi.)Related news: The head of China’s Shangri-La Dialogue delegation avoided sharp criticism of the US during his speech on Saturday. “We also hope that China and the United States will move towards each other … promote the development of military-to-military relations along a healthy, stable and sustainable path,” Major General Meng Xiangqing said. He did say that the world faces challenges from “hegemonism” and “bloc confrontation” driven by “certain countries”, without directly naming the US. Japanese Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi rejected accusations that his country is reviving militarism in his speech on Sunday. Instead, he said that changes to Japan’s stance on defence would let it play a greater role in cooperation in the region. He also pushed back at accusations from China, which Meng echoed in his speech the day before. “There is a country that has a huge arsenal of nuclear weapons and strategic bombers. Japan has neither of such weapons. And yet Japan is labelled ‘new militarism’. Isn’t it strange?” Koizumi said. The chairwoman of Taiwan’s main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party, Cheng Li-wun, begins a two-week visit to the US on Monday. The trip will include stops in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, New York and Washington. Cheng has sought a meeting with President Donald Trump, Bloomberg News previously reported. The trip follows Cheng’s historic visit to mainland China in April, which included a rare sit-down with Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping. How others reported it Missed opportunity: “Beijing’s pressure against Taipei has not changed since last year, when Secretary Hegseth was right to call it out. This year’s remarks presented an opportunity to communicate that message again, and the silence will speak volumes,” said Chris Estep, a former Pentagon official at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. “Players across the region are stepping up to invest in their defences as he rightly pointed out. Not mentioning Taipei’s recent decision to spend more … will raise eyebrows.” (Financial Times) Mixed messages: “The Trump administration’s transactional approach to alliances and partnerships has created uncertainty for US allies around the world,” [said] the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the London-based think tank that organises the Shangri-La Dialogue … “Diplomacy with the United States’ East Asian allies has sent mixed messages that have both bolstered and undermined its credibility,” the IISS said. Trump’s calls for allies to invest in their own defence capabilities “also caused fears of abandonment”, it said. (The Wall Street Journal) Strength or vulnerability?: “On China, something had clearly changed: this was perhaps the least confronting speech from a US administration in the 23-year history of the Shangri-La Dialogue,” said Rory Medcalf, head of the National Security College at the Australian National University. “The great uncertainty is whether this all reflects strength or vulnerability in the US negotiating position.” (Bloomberg) Better tone: Senior fellow at Tsinghua University and retired People’s Liberation Army senior colonel Zhou Bo, who was part of the Chinese delegation, described US-China relations as “complicated”. Nonetheless, he said Hegseth struck “a much better tone” this year than last, attributing the shift to Trump’s visit to China. “Both sides have open channels of communication, the situation is not as exaggerated as the outside world makes it out to be.” (Channel News Asia) Conditional protection: In a region already concerned that America may be too focused elsewhere and providing too many concessions to China, Mr Hegseth offered assurance that the United States would stay proactive and protective – but also warned that American help would be conditional. (The New York Times) The SCMP Plus takeawayUS defence chief Pete Hegseth swapped finger-wagging for backslapping as he returned to Singapore for an annual security conference.At last year’s Shangri-La Dialogue, Hegseth demanded that US allies and security partners in Asia start pulling their weight and sharply ramp up defence spending. He also said that China posed a real and possibly “imminent” threat.This time round, Hegseth made a point of praising allies that had responded to US calls. South Korea got a shout-out for raising defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP – the threshold the US is pressing every ally to reach. The Philippines won praise for hosting the Balikatan military exercises and for boosting its defence budget by 12 per cent.Japan was “headed in the right direction”, even if there was more work to do, Hegseth said, while Australia was “stepping up”. Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia were similarly name-dropped, along with Vietnam and India.The speech was mainly positive about Asia-Pacific allies, although New Zealand did later get some flak from Hegseth for only raising defence spending to 2 per cent of GDP.In general, a bigger target in the defence secretary’s speech was Europe, which got a broadside about defence spending. There was also something of a warning.“Europe and Nato have some big decisions to make, and more on that soon,” Hegseth said without elaboration. Nato defence ministers meet in Brussels this month, followed by a July leaders’ summit in Turkey.On China, Hegseth was noticeably more muted than a year ago. There was more emphasis on the “truly historic” summit between Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump than on concerns about China’s military build-up. Hegseth even referenced “a constructive relationship of strategic stability”, echoing a phrase used by the Chinese leader.The US defence secretary also underscored the need to strengthen military-to-military ties with China to head off any escalation.“This dialogue is not a sign of capitulating in either direction, but a practical guardrail ensuring the relationship our leaders seek at the top is preserved at every level,” he said.Hegseth steered clear of Taiwan and the South China Sea – hot-button issues that could easily inflame tensions with China.This change from last year underscores how the Trump administration is seeking to avoid a flare-up with China in the Indo-Pacific, not least at a time when the US is bogged down in the Middle East and struggling to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.Trump has sought to improve ties with China after stepping back from a trade war launched at the start of his presidency. Tariffs were lowered from sky-high levels and the president signed a one-year truce with Xi at a summit in South Korea in October. Xi then feted Trump at their meeting in Beijing last month, and he has accepted an invitation to Washington for a state visit in September, the first in more than a decade.The US president has also held off on approving a US$14 billion arms package for Taiwan, instead referring to it as a “negotiating chip” in talks with Beijing. That has caused alarm about US commitments to the island. Hegseth said there was no change in US policy on Taiwan.Still, while US-China tensions seem to be ebbing, there are no such signs when it comes to relations between China and Japan.China has been bristling about changes in Japanese defence policies afoot under hawkish Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, recalling the history of its brutal wartime occupation by Japanese forces.Takaichi drew Beijing’s ire when she suggested in November that a conflict over Taiwan would be the kind of existential-level threat that would require intervention by Japan. Beijing has also objected to Takaichi’s plans to revise the pacifist constitution and loosen arms-export controls.China’s delegation head, Major General Meng Xiangqing, reiterated complaints about Japan in his speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue. Japanese Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said he was “sad” there were no direct talks between the two countries at the event.