Hegseth seeks to convince allies U.S. should stay quiet on Taiwan | Fortune

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.