US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth drew criticism for failing to mention Taiwan during his address at the Shangri-La Dialogue (an annual high-level defence summit held in Singapore), despite attending at a moment of heightened anxiety over cross-strait security following President Trump's recent summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The omission was particularly striking given that Hegseth's speech at the same forum in 2024 referenced Taiwan five times and warned that a Chinese-initiated conflict could be "imminent." The silence compounds a pattern of mixed signals from the Trump administration on Taiwan, which has both approved an $11 billion arms sale to Taipei and reportedly stalled a separate $14 billion package, with Trump himself describing weapons transfers as a "bargaining chip" in dealings with Beijing.