Hegseth pitches new US-Asean defence framework, but doubts run deep

South China Morning Post - Oct 29, 2026

What are Southeast Asian nations doing to help the United States tackle its challenges? A reporter with the American right-wing organisation Turning Point USA put the question bluntly to US President Donald Trump’s defence chief this week in the Philippines. As US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth pitched closer naval ties and maritime security cooperation at a gathering of defence ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and other regional powers, the question injected...

Read full article
MORE NEWS
What China’s best new cultural spaces have in common: the light touch
What China’s best new cultural spaces have in common: the light touch
On a hillside in Anji, in Zhejiang province, a cluster of umbrella-like canopies steps gently down the slope, following the rows of tea bushes. There is no grand entrance, no...
Oct 28, 2026See more
What China’s best new cultural spaces have in common: the light touch
What China’s best new cultural spaces have in common: the light touch
On a hillside in Anji, in Zhejiang province, a cluster of umbrella-like canopies steps gently down the slope, following the rows of tea bushes. There is no grand entrance, no...
Oct 28, 2026See more
Hegseth pledges stronger military framework with Philippines, but lacks details
Hegseth pledges stronger military framework with Philippines, but lacks details
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced additional military cooperation funding for the Philippines and agreed with Manila on efforts for enhanced interoperability between their forces on Wednesday, as Washington sought...
Oct 28, 2026See more
Huawei opens defence in US criminal trial, touting its record of innovation
Huawei opens defence in US criminal trial, touting its record of innovation
Huawei Technologies started presenting its case on Wednesday, arguing that as a cutting-edge global tech leader it had no interest in stealing trade secrets, in a high-stakes criminal trial involving...
Oct 28, 2026See more
Real Madrid issues apology to China over Mbappe’s Mao remarks
Real Madrid issues apology to China over Mbappe’s Mao remarks
Real Madrid has issued an apology to China over Kylian Mbappe’s controversial remarks about the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong, after the Spanish football club’s initial response failed to quell...
Oct 28, 2026See more
Hong Kong world’s first airport to receive digital identity certification from IATA
Hong Kong world’s first airport to receive digital identity certification from IATA
Hong Kong International Airport has become one of the first two organisations certified under an international aviation industry group’s digital identity programme, as it seeks to expand its facial recognition...
Oct 28, 2026See more
Chinese astronomers find planets that somehow avoided death by red giant stars
Chinese astronomers find planets that somehow avoided death by red giant stars
When a star like our sun grows old, it puffs up into a red giant that can gobble up its nearest planets. But Chinese astronomers say they have found three solar...
Oct 28, 2026See more
Hong Kong lawmaker urges more checks as illegal parking fines top HK$70m a year
Hong Kong lawmaker urges more checks as illegal parking fines top HK$70m a year
Traffic police have issued more than 220,000 tickets for parking-related offences in each of the past three years, raking in at least HK$70 million (US$8.92 million) a year for Hong...
Oct 28, 2026See more
Elon Musk, Jensen Huang have opposing outlooks on AI neoclouds. Who is likely correct?
Elon Musk, Jensen Huang have opposing outlooks on AI neoclouds. Who is likely correct?
As investor anxiety over an artificial intelligence bubble mounts, SpaceX’s Elon Musk and Nvidia chief Jensen Huang have offered starkly divergent outlooks on whether the specialist cloud providers powering the...
Oct 28, 2026See more
China is putting ecosystems on the road to recovery
China is putting ecosystems on the road to recovery
China is putting ecosystems on the road to recovery
Oct 28, 2026See more
In China gene-editing trial, 2 children improved, 1 died and 1 withdrew
In China gene-editing trial, 2 children improved, 1 died and 1 withdrew
Four seriously ill Chinese boys who would almost certainly have died in their twenties from a rare inherited disease received the same highly anticipated gene-editing drug. More than a year later,...
Oct 28, 2026See more
Police officer denies evidence was contaminated at flat in Abby Choi murder trial
Police officer denies evidence was contaminated at flat in Abby Choi murder trial
A police officer investigating the alleged murder of Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi Tin-fung has denied tampering with the evidence he collected from a rural village flat where her dismembered...
Oct 28, 2026See more
RECOMMENDED