Pete Hegseth’s silence on Taiwan is exactly what Xi Jinping wants

Pete Hegseth’s silence on Taiwan is exactly what Xi Jinping wants

Defense Secretary Hegseth became the first Pentagon chief in over a decade to omit Taiwan from his Shangri-La Dialogue address, signaling a "strong, quiet and clear" US posture while a stalled $14 billion arms package remains unresolved. For tech and defense leaders, the rhetorical shift reframes US-China stability calculus at a moment when supply chain and semiconductor exposure to Taiwan remains the sector's single largest geopolitical risk variable.