Breaking: China Skips Shangri-La Dialogue as U.S. Defense Chief Hegseth Arrives in Singapore — LIVE
Breaking — Asia Pacific
China Skips Shangri-La Dialogue as U.S. Defense Chief Hegseth Arrives in Singapore
MAY 29, 2026 | SINGAPORE / WASHINGTON / BEIJING — Kenji Tanaka, Media Hook
China’s defense minister will sit out the Shangri-La Dialogue for the second consecutive year as U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth arrived in Singapore on Thursday for the opening of Asia’s premier defense summit, a watershed moment of competing visions for the region’s security architecture.
Hegseth is scheduled to meet Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and Defense Minister Chan Chun Sing on the sidelines of the three-day IISS dialogue that runs May 29–31. He is then expected to deliver a keynote address on Saturday laying out America’s updated posture toward the Indo-Pacific. U.S. Indo-Pacific Command commander Admiral Samuel Paparo is also attending.
China’s absence from the high-level forum is the most striking feature of this year’s gathering. According to Business Times Singapore, China’s defense minister will again skip the dialogue — and sources quoted by Channel News Asia confirm that no top defense officials will be part of the Chinese delegation at all.
What We Know Hegseth touch-down: The U.S. Secretary of War landed in Singapore on May 29 ahead of the formal May 29–31 Shangri-La Dialogue China skips again: Defense Minister Dong Jun will not attend — the second consecutive year Beijing has sent no senior defense leadership No top officials in delegation: Even below ministerial level, no senior PLA brass confirmed as attending AUKUS on the margins: The UK and Australia — AUKUS partners — are gathering in Singapore alongside the main dialogue North Korea remarks: Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said Pyongyang “not interested in engaging with the United States or South Korea” Sunday Times of London and Reuters both reporting global tensions are front and center of this year’s discussions
The snub is the latest sign that Beijing is choosing a more confrontational posture at a moment when Washington is aggressively reassembling its Asian alliances. Washington Post’s May 28 dispatch described the summit as opening “with China and doubts about U.S. priorities topping the concerns.”
Singapore’s Ministry of Defence confirmed on May 28 that 23 nations are participating in the 23rd edition of the flagship defense forum. The IISS press release confirmed Hegseth as a keynote speaker on Saturday.
“The Indo-Pacific is no longer a Shangri-La after the mayhem in West Asia,” wrote Malay Mail columnist Phang Ai Tin — reflecting a wider sentiment that Middle East volatility is now directly reshaping Asian security calculations.
South China Morning Post’s live coverage preview of Hegseth’s Saturday address noted he would warn that China aims to “alter the Indo-Pacific status quo by force.” China’s state media has already preemptively rejected those characterizations, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs this week calling U.S. rhetoric “dangerous and destabilizing.”
What happens in Singapore this weekend — and what does not happen — will shape the ballistic-missile and naval-exercise calculations for all of East and Southeast Asia for weeks to come.
Live coverage continues at mhook.net.
