US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth softened his tone towards China in his speech on Saturday to the Shangri-La defence forum compared with the previous year. Speaking two weeks after the meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in Beijing, Hegseth also adopted a cautious stance on US arms sales to Taiwan when questioned about the highly sensitive issue and did not mention the island at all in his speech. Although he still criticised China’s military build-up, unlike last year he did