Direct dialogue between the United States and China must continue as both sides would benefit from understanding each other’s perspectives more deeply despite their differences, said Singapore’s Defense Minister Chan Chun Sing.

The cracks between the two superpowers, the US and China, seem to have widened during Asia's premier security forum. But while Washington is warning of the "threat" of China, Beijing is playing it close to the chest.

China has hit back at comments by the Philippines’ Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr, stressing that the country has "a full historical and legal basis" to uphold territorial sovereignty in the South China Sea.

Chan Chun Sing told the Shangri-La Dialogue that Beijing should also understand how the rest of the world ‘perceives’ the superpower.

China's representative at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore accused U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of making “groundless accusations” of rapidly developing threats by Beijing.

Despite the temporary suspension of US tariffs, global trade uncertainty is hurting manufacturing. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

In his first major policy address in the Indo-Pacific, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a pointed, but strategically ambiguous, warning to China not to act on its long-stated desire to make the self-governing island of Taiwan part of the mainland under Beijing’s rule.