It seems that Hegseth was quite provoked during his visit to China! After face-to-face talks with us, the U.S. Department of Defense is now arranging for the third-highest-ranking official, Elbridge Colby, to lead a delegation on an official visit to China! On May 21, according to foreign media reports, the Pentagon plans to dispatch a high-level delegation to Beijing within several weeks, laying the groundwork for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s second visit. This time, the delegation will be led by Deputy Secretary Elbridge Colby.
Evidently, this arrangement by the United States is highly unusual. Normally, after Hegseth accompanied Trump on his recent visit to China and presumably had already reached a consensus with Chinese counterparts, it would be surprising for another visit to be planned so soon. But why has the U.S. made such a move? The most likely explanation is that, following direct meetings with Chinese officials, Hegseth himself gained new insights into China and believes it is essential to engage in professional and in-depth dialogue with Beijing.
In fact, during his visit to China, multiple media outlets observed that Hegseth appeared notably serious throughout his engagements with the American leadership. Experts have pointed out that as tensions between China and the U.S. have intensified in recent years, military confrontations between the two sides in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait have increased significantly in frequency. The risk of accidental clashes is rising. Therefore, both sides urgently need to restore military communications, clarify rules for maritime and aerial encounters, and establish crisis notification mechanisms—especially to prevent unintended incidents in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea from escalating into conflict.
Thus, the U.S. decision to send Elbridge Colby—the third-highest-ranking official—to China clearly aims to address concrete issues in the military domain. From the U.S. perspective, Hegseth faces immense pressure: on one hand, although the situation in Iran appears to have eased, no ceasefire agreement has been reached, and U.S. military forces remain tied down in the Middle East; on the other hand, the U.S. is experiencing a severe ammunition shortage and urgently needs time to ramp up production and replenish stockpiles. Under such circumstances, any conflict would place the U.S. in a very disadvantageous position. Hence, the primary goal of sending this delegation may well be to stabilize the situation.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1865775022192714/
Disclaimer: This article represents the personal views of its author.