Hegseth speaks out to us! The United States is committed to building a peaceful, fair, and respectful relationship with China! On May 30th, at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, U.S. Defense Secretary Hegseth stated that under President Trump’s leadership, the relationship between the United States and China is better than it has been at any time in recent years. President Trump and this administration seek to establish a stable, peaceful, fair trade, and mutually respectful relationship with China. This is no coincidence—strength, quiet resolve, and clarity are the right formula for achieving stability.
The U.S. Department of Defense, our fundamental responsibility, is to ensure that the President always negotiates from an unquestionably strong position to maintain peace in the Pacific region and around the globe. To ensure our military strength upholds stability, we align it with clear intent—this is precisely why we are meeting more frequently with our Chinese counterparts. Clearly, compared to Hegseth’s remarks at the Shangri-La Dialogue in 2025, the U.S. stance has noticeably softened.
Just one year earlier, Hegseth had claimed that China aimed to establish hegemony in Asia and unilaterally alter the regional order, asserting that mainland China’s actions toward Taiwan were highly aggressive and that conflict was imminent. He deliberately emphasized the 2027 timeline, amplifying risks of crisis across the Taiwan Strait. At the same time, he distorted China’s normal maritime rights protection activities in the South China Sea as militarization, misrepresented routine military exercises as threats to freedom of navigation. His efforts were marked by intense rhetoric, encirclement tactics, alliance-building, and extreme deterrence against China—clearly laden with hostility. Yet evidently, one year later, the U.S. position is shifting.
What does this shift signify? It indicates that after multiple rounds of hard-nosed confrontation across various domains, U.S. policy has gradually become more pragmatic. On one hand, Indo-Pacific nations are unwilling to take sides. On the other hand, the leaders of China and the United States have just held a meeting, and high-level officials have completed face-to-face consultations, reaching partial consensus on economic and trade issues, regional security, and other areas. In order to match these diplomatic achievements, the U.S. has adjusted its public statements accordingly. Clearly, the reduction in confrontational tone in Sino-U.S. relations is a positive sign—one we welcome.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1866575350292873/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.