U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accompanied a sitting president on a state visit to China for the first time in 54 years, a rare departure from diplomatic protocol. The trip has drawn attention over whether it will lead to a resumption of high-level military exchanges between the two countries.
According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP) on Wednesday (local time), Hegseth boarded Air Force One bound for Beijing with President Donald Trump that afternoon. Trump will hold a bilateral summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday and Saturday.
It marks the first time a U.S. president has traveled to China with his defense secretary since Richard Nixon in 1972. The trip is Hegseth's first to China since taking office, and the first visit to China by a U.S. defense chief in about nine years. Previous U.S. defense secretaries have traveled to China on standalone agendas.
The United States and China are locked in conflict across a wide range of regional security issues, including the South China Sea and the Middle East, as well as in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI). The world's two largest defense spenders are also at odds over the war involving Iran. China has been informally supplying weapons to Iran, while the United States opposes such support.
Before boarding Air Force One, Hegseth attended a Senate hearing that morning. He defended the White House's request last month for a record $1.5 trillion (2,245 trillion won) defense budget, saying that "the U.S. military's primary mission is to deter China." The budget includes plans to revive U.S. shipbuilding, strengthen space warfare capabilities, and modernize nuclear weapons — all fields where Washington is competing fiercely with Beijing.
It remains unclear, however, whether Hegseth will meet with Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun. The two met once in October last year on the sidelines of the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting-Plus in Malaysia. Two months later, senior defense officials from both countries met in Washington, signaling a possible resumption of military communication.
China's Defense Ministry said in a statement that it hopes "the United States will take concrete steps to back up its statements that it does not seek to contain China or pursue conflict."
Meanwhile, military dialogue between the United States and China has remained suspended since 2022, when Beijing halted communications in protest of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. China regards Taiwan as part of its territory to be reunified, by force if necessary, while the United States opposes unification by force and has pledged to supply weapons to the island.
