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A federal appeals court paused a lower ruling blocking President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, siding with the administration Thursday in a legal fight over the White House’s use of an emergency law to enact punishing import taxes. 

The back-and-forth injected more volatility into markets this week after several weeks of relative calm, and court observers and economists told Fox News Digital they do not expect the dust to settle any time soon. 

Here’s what to know as this litigation continues to play out.

What’s happening now?

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit temporarily stayed a lower court ruling Thursday that blocked two of Trump’s sweeping tariffs from taking force.

The ruling paused a decision by the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) allowing Trump to continue to enact the 10% baseline tariff and the so-called ‘reciprocal tariffs’ that he announced April 2 under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA.

It came one day after the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled unanimously to block the tariffs.

Members of the three-judge panel who were appointed by Trump, former President Barack Obama and former President Ronald Reagan, ruled unanimously that Trump had overstepped his authority under IEEPA. They noted that, as commander in chief, Trump does not have ‘unbounded authority’ to impose tariffs under the emergency law. 

Now, lawyers for the Trump administration and the plaintiffs are tasked with complying with a fast schedule with deadlines in both courts. Plaintiffs have until 5 p.m. Monday to file their response to the Court of International Trade, according to Jeffrey Schwab, senior counsel and director of litigation of the Liberty Justice Center, which represents five small businesses that sued the administration. 

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit gave plaintiffs until Thursday to file a response to the stay and the Trump administration until June 9 to file a reply, Schwab told Fox News Digital in an interview. 

The goal is to move expeditiously, and lawyers for the plaintiffs told Fox News they plan to file briefs to both courts before the deadlines to mitigate harm to their clients.

‘Hopefully,’ Schwab said, the quick action will allow the courts to issue rulings ‘more quickly than they otherwise would.’

What’s at stake?

The Trump administration praised the stay as a victory.

The appellate court stay on the CIT ruling ‘is a positive development for America’s industries and workers,’ White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement.

‘The Trump administration remains committed to addressing our country’s national emergencies of drug trafficking and historic trade deficits with every legal authority conferred to the president in the Constitution and by Congress.’

But some economists warned that continuing to pursue the steep tariffs could backfire. 

The bottom line for the Trump administration ‘is that they need to get back to a place [where] they are using these huge reciprocal tariffs and all of that as a negotiating tactic,’ William Cline, an economist and senior fellow emeritus at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said in an interview. 

Cline noted that this had been the framework laid out earlier by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who had embraced the tariffs as more of an opening salvo for future trade talks, including between the U.S. and China. 

‘I think the thing to keep in mind there is that Trump and Vance have this view that tariffs are beautiful because they will restore America’s Rust Belt jobs and that they’ll collect money while they’re doing it, which will contribute to fiscal growth,’ said Cline, the former deputy managing director and chief economist of the Institute of International Finance.

‘Those are both fantasies.’

What happens now?

Plaintiffs and the Trump administration wait. But whether that wait is a good or bad thing depends on who is asked.

Economists noted that the longer the court process takes, the more uncertainty is injected into markets. This could slow economic growth and hurt consumers. 

For the U.S. small business owners that have sued Trump over the tariffs, it could risk potentially irreparable harm.

‘Some of the harm has already taken place. And the longer it goes on, the worse it is,’ said Schwab. 

The White House said it will take its tariff fight to the Supreme Court if necessary. But it’s unclear if the high court would choose to take up the case.

The challenge comes at a time when Trump’s relationship with the judiciary has come under increasing strain, which could make the high court wary to take on such a politically charged case. 

Lawyers for the plaintiffs described the case as ‘very likely’ to be appealed to the Supreme Court, but it’s unclear whether it will move to review it.

‘It’s possible that because the case is before the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, which essentially applies to the country, unlike specific appellate courts, which have certain districts, that the Supreme Court might be OK with whatever the Federal Circuit decides and then not take the case,’ Schwab said. 

For now, the burden of proof shifts to the government, which must convince the court it will suffer ‘irreparable harm’ if the injunction remains in place, a high legal standard the Trump administration must meet.

Beyond that, Schwab said, the court will weigh a balancing test. If both sides claim irreparable harm, the justices will ask, ‘Who is irreparably harmed more?

‘And I think it’s fair to say that our clients are going to be more irreparably harmed than the United States federal government. Because our clients might not exist, and the United States federal government is certainly going to exist.’

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Hunter Biden was seen out and about with his family in Cape Town, South Africa, Friday amid Republicans’ investigation into an alleged ‘conspiracy’ related to his father’s cognitive decline as president. 

The embattled son of the former president toured Cape Town with his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, and son, Beau Biden Jr., driving a rented Toyota sedan, a big change from the black Chevy Suburbans he was used to traveling in before President Donald Trump yanked his Secret Service detail. 

In March, Trump terminated Hunter Biden’s Secret Service detail after former President Joe Biden extended his son’s detail indefinitely. Typically, children of former presidents only enjoy Secret Service protection if they are 16 or younger.

Trump’s move to remove Hunter Biden’s detail came as the former president’s son was once again vacationing in South Africa.

Hunter Biden and his family were seen on the Sea Point Main Road, a main thoroughfare in a wealthy part of Cape Town, paying for parking and stopping into the local butcher. Based on the images, it is apparent Hunter no longer has the luxury of a Secret Service detail.

The new pictures also mark the first time Hunter Biden has been seen publicly since his father’s public cancer announcement.

Republicans are launching a new investigation into the alleged ‘conspiracy’ behind former President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline. 

Senstors Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, announced plans to hold a Senate Judiciary hearing June 18 to look into the alleged cover-up of the 82-year-old former president’s mental decline while in office by the media and those closest to him.

The lawmakers are still gathering witnesses for the probe, which would be the first full congressional committee hearing on the subject.

Fox News Digital’s Alex Miller contributed to this report.

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Amazon’s devices unit has a new team tasked with inventing “breakthrough” consumer products that’s being led by a former Microsoft executive who helped create the Xbox.

The ZeroOne team is spread across Seattle, San Francisco and Sunnyvale, California, and is focused on both hardware and software projects, according to job postings from the past month. The name is a nod to its mission of developing emerging product ideas from conception to launch, or “zero to one.”

Amazon has a checkered history in hardware, with hits including the Kindle e-reader, Echo smart speaker and Fire streaming sticks, as well as flops like the Fire Phone, Halo fitness tracker and Glow kids teleconferencing device.

Many of the products emerged from Lab126, Amazon’s hardware research and development unit, which is based in Silicon Valley.

The new group is being led by J Allard, who spent 19 years at Microsoft, most recently as technology chief of consumer products, a role he left in 2010, according to his LinkedIn profile. He was a key architect of the Xbox game console, as well as the Zune, a failed iPod competitor.

Allard joined Amazon in September, and the company confirmed at the time that he would be part of the devices and services team under Panos Panay, who left Microsoft for Amazon in 2023 to lead the group.

An Amazon spokesperson confirmed Allard oversees ZeroOne but declined to comment further on the group’s work.

The job postings provide few specific details about what ZeroOne is building, though one listing references working on “conceiving, designing, and bringing to market computer vision techniques for a new smart-home product.”

Another post for a senior customer insights manager in San Francisco says the job entails owning “the methodology and execution of concept testing and early feedback for ZeroOne programs.”

“You’ll be part of a team that embraces design thinking, rapid experimentation, and building to learn,” the description says. “If you’re excited about working in small, nimble teams to create entirely new product categories and thrive in the ambiguity of breakthrough innovation, we want to talk to you.”

Amazon has pulled in staffers from other business units that have experience developing innovative technologies, including its Alexa voice assistant, Luna cloud gaming service and Halo sleep tracker, according to Linkedin profiles of ZeroOne employees. The head of a projection mapping startup called Lightform that Amazon acquired is helping lead the group.

While Amazon is expanding this particular corner of its devices group, the company is scaling back other areas of the sprawling devices and services division.

Earlier this month, Amazon laid off about 100 of the group’s employees. The job cuts included staffers working on Alexa and Amazon Kids, which develops services for children, as well as Lab126, according to public filings and people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named due to confidentiality. More than 50 employees were laid off at Amazon’s Lab126 facilities in Sunnyvale, according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filings in California.

Amazon said the job cuts affected a fraction of a percent of the devices and services organization, which has tens of thousands of employees.

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While U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs play out in U.S. courts, another one of his proposed laws could weaponize the American tax system.

Investment banks and law firms warn this step could prove to be as significant as the impact of duties on investors.

The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which passed through the U.S. House of Representatives last week, includes the most sweeping changes to the tax treatment of foreign capital in the U.S. in decades under a provision known as Section 899. The bill must still gain the Senate’s approval.

“We see this legislation as creating the scope for the US administration to transform a trade war into a capital war if it so wishes,” said George Saravelos, global head of FX research at Deutsche Bank on Thursday.

“Section 899 challenges the open nature of US capital markets by explicitly using taxation on foreign holdings of US assets as leverage to further US economic goals,” Saravelos added in the note to clients, under the subtitle “weaponization of US capital markets in to law.”

Section 899 says it will hit entities from “discriminatory foreign countries” — those that impose levies such as the digital services taxes that disproportionately affect U.S. companies.

France, for instance, has a 3% tax on revenues from online platforms, which primarily targets big technology firms such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple. Germany is reportedly considering a similar tax of 10%.

Under the new tax bill, the U.S. would hit investors from such countries by increasing taxes on U.S. income by 5 percentage points each year, potentially taking the rate up to 20%.

Emmanuel Cau, head of European Equity Strategy at Barclays, suggested that the mere passage of the tax legislation could make dollar assets less valuable for foreign investors.

“In our view, this is a risk for those companies generating US revenues, and domiciled in countries that have enacted Digital Services Taxes (DST) or are implementing the OECD’s Under Taxed Payment Rule (UTPR),” Cau said in a Friday note to clients.

He highlighted companies such as London-listed Compass Group, which provides catering services to U.S. schools, and InterContinental Hotels, which owns at least 25 luxury hotels in the U.S., are likely to be affected by the proposed law.

“Given US net international investment position is sharply negative, there is indeed scope for capital outflows if indeed S899 passes through the Senate in its current form,” he added.

The impact of the bill won’t be limited to European companies or individuals from those states.

The bill “could significantly increase tax rates applicable to certain non-U.S. individuals and business, governmental, and other entities,” said Max Levine, head of U.S. tax at the law firm Linklaters.

This means it could also ensnare governments and central banks, which are large investors of U.S. Treasuries. France and Germany, for instance, held a combined $475 billion worth of U.S. government bonds as of March.

The proposed tax would lower returns on U.S. Treasuries for those investors as “the de facto yield on US Treasuries would drop by nearly 100bps,” Deutsche Bank’s Saravelos added. “The adverse impact on demand for USTs and funding the US twin deficit at a time when this is most needed is clear”.

“It’s very bad,” said Beat Wittmann, chairman of Switzerland-based Porta Advisors. “This is huge — this is just one piece in the overall plan and it’s completely consistent with what this administration is all about.”

“The ultimate judge for this is not our opinions, it’s the bond market,” Wittmann added. “The U.S. bond market is discounting these developments, and we have seen in the last few weeks, that if there was a safe haven move, investors clearly prefer German bunds.”

Large Australian pension funds with U.S. investments have also been reportedly concerned by the bill, since Australia operates a medicines subsidy scheme that is opposed by large U.S. pharmaceutical companies.

Legal experts at the Mayer Brown law firm suggest that “significant changes” could be made to the bill as it passes through the U.S. Senate before it’s enshrined into law by Trump.

“As such, there may be questions about whether the provisions of the proposal that override tax treaties could be included in the US Senate’s version of the tax bill,” Mayer Brown’s experts said.

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A huge chunk of a glacier in the Swiss Alps broke off on Wednesday afternoon, causing a deluge of ice, mud and rock to bury part of a mountain village evacuated earlier this month due to the risk of a rockslide, authorities said.

One person is currently missing, officials said.

Drone footage broadcast by Swiss national broadcaster SRF showed a vast plain of mud and soil completely covering part of the village of Blatten, the river running through it and the wooded sides of the surrounding valley.

“We’ve lost our village,” Matthias Bellwald, the mayor of Blatten told a press conference after the slide. “The village is under rubble. We will rebuild.”

Stephane Ganzer, an official in the canton of Valais where Blatten is located, told Swiss media that about 90% of the village was covered by the landslide.

“An unbelievable amount of material thundered down into the valley,” said Matthias Ebener, a spokesperson for local authorities in the southwestern canton of Valais.

One person was missing, Ebener said. Officials gave no further details on the person during the press conference.

Officials said millions of cubic metres of rock and soil have tumbled down since Blatten was first evacuated this month when part of the mountain behind the glacier began to crumble, sparking warnings it could bring the ice mass down with it.

A video shared widely on social media showed the dramatic moment when the glacier partially collapsed, creating a huge cloud that covered part of the mountain as rock and debris came cascading down towards the village.

Experts consulted by Reuters said it was difficult to assess the extent to which rising temperatures spurred by climate change had triggered the collapse because of the role the crumbling mountainside had played.

Christian Huggel, a professor of environment and climate at the University of Zurich, said while various factors were at play in Blatten, it was known that local permafrost had been affected by warmer temperatures in the Alps.

The loss of permafrost can negatively affect the stability of the mountain rock which is why climate change had likely played a part in the deluge, Huggel said.

The extent of the damage to Blatten had no precedent in the Swiss Alps in the current or previous century, he added.

The rubble of shattered wooden buildings could be seen on the flanks of the huge mass of earth in the drone footage.

Buildings and infrastructure in Blatten, whose roughly 300 inhabitants were evacuated on May 19 after geologists had identified the risk of an imminent avalanche of rock and ice from above, were hit hard by the rockslide, Ebener said.

SRF said houses were destroyed in the village nestled in the Loetschental valley in southern Switzerland.

Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter expressed her solidarity with the local population as emergency services warned people the area was hazardous and urged them to stay away, closing off the main road into the valley.

“It’s terrible to lose your home,” Keller-Sutter said on X.

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Earlier this year, Hungarian lawmakers passed new legislation which outlaws Pride events in the country and allows authorities to use facial recognition technology to identify those attending any events that go ahead despite the ban.

But officials from at least six groups of the European Parliament are planning on attending Budapest’s annual Pride march anyway, according to a spokesperson for Kim van Sparrentak, the co-president of the European Union’s Intergroup.

The Intergroup describes itself as an “informal forum for Members of the European Parliament (MEPS) who wish to advance and protect the fundamental rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people.”

Budapest Pride has remained determined in the face of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his government, which has previously said it is outlawing the parade and other LGBTQ gatherings in the country due to “child protection” issues.

Organizers have vowed to hold the event anyway, and have called on “international allies, activists, and friends” to join the Pride parade though Hungary’s capital on June 28.

“Pride is a protest, and if Orbán can ban Budapest Pride without consequences, every pride is one election away from being banned,” she continued.

Angel said that he will be “defending the right to assemble as a fundamental European right,” adding that he hopes to “show Hungarians who believe in democracy and in Europe that they are not alone.”

On Tuesday, a group of 20 countries in the European Union signed a letter urging Hungary to revise its “anti-LGBTIQ+ legislation,” calling on the European Commission to “expeditiously make full use of the rule of law toolbox at its disposal” if this doesn’t happen.

Angel suggested that some of these mechanisms could include stopping EU funding to Hungary and enacting an infringement procedure against the country for failing to implement EU law.

In Tuesday’s letter, the foreign ministries of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden said that they are “deeply concerned” by Hungary’s recent law changes.

The use of facial recognition software to identify people attending banned events was also condemned, with the countries saying that they “are concerned by the implications of these measures on freedom of expression, the right to peaceful assembly, and the right to privacy.”

“Respecting and protecting the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all people, including LGBTIQ+ persons, is inherent in being part of the European family. This is our responsibility and shared commitment of the member states and the European institutions,” the letter read.

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The homicide trial of Diego Maradona’s medical team for alleged malpractice was declared invalid by an Argentine court on Thursday.

The decision comes after one of the three judges overseeing the case was removed due to a possible lack of impartiality and for allegedly authorizing the filming of a documentary during court hearings.

The trial, which started on March 11, must now start from scratch.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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Catalina, a 23-year-old US citizen, confidently drives to her job as a nanny and earns a fair wage. Yet her mother – an undocumented immigrant from Peru – has worked in the shadows for 30 years.

The Obama administration focused on curbing interior deportations (as opposed to deportations at the border) and, especially in its later years, on so-called “quick returns” of recent border arrivals who were perceived to have fewer ties in the US.

“A lot of people told her nothing would happen, and indeed, nothing did,” Catalina says, explaining her mother ultimately decided to stay.

However, the harsh immigration policies of Donald Trump’s administration paint a bleaker picture for both. The 23-year-old fears her mother could be detained when she drops off the children of a family she cares for every afternoon to support her own family.

“She’s a single mom. I’m the oldest daughter, so if something happens to her, I’d have to take care of my siblings,” Catalina says. “She had to sign a paper leaving everything to me, just in case: what to do with my siblings, her things, her money. It’s awful to think about, but she feels prepared.”

‘An invisible workforce’

Catalina’s mother has raised her children alone and dedicated part of her life to childcare, a sector facing a deep staffing crisis—one that has worsened in recent months, as experts say immigrants are essential to sustaining it.

According to a report from the National Women’s Law Center, 20% of early educators in the US – an umbrella term encompassing preschool teachers, home-based childcare providers, teachers aids and program directors – are immigrants. Women make up “a significant percentage” of the workforce in this sector nationwide.

“Care work is the work that makes all other work possible and enables all families to thrive,” the report says. However, caregivers face low wages, lack of benefits, vulnerability to exploitation, and job insecurity. Undocumented workers, for their part, also lack basic labor rights and protections.

Although she has lived in the US for years, Catalina’s mother does not have access to work benefits like health insurance or social security.

“She gets paid in cash or by check, but no benefits. Nothing,” Catalina says of her mother’s working conditions.

Every year, undocumented immigrants living in the US pay billions of dollars in taxes even though they know they won’t be able to enjoy the benefits unless their status is regularized.

Additionally, the constant threat of being reported limits her even when accepting jobs. “If a job comes from an American family, I don’t think she’d take it. She’s afraid that if something happens, someone will call the authorities.”

According to Cervantes, immigrant childcare workers “are often an invisible workforce.” Despite their crucial role in the early education of an increasingly diverse child population, they are not sufficiently recognized.

“One thing that often goes unrecognized is that these workers are among the few who are bilingual and culturally competent, particularly in the formal sector, which is highly sought after. Many families want their children in bilingual education programs, and these workers are essential for serving an increasingly diverse child population,” adds the CLASP director.

A childcare system under threat

Beyond the numbers, the tightening of immigration policies under Trump’s administration has directly impacted the reality of thousands of families like Catalina’s.

A few weeks after Trump took office, his administration announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents could now make arrests near places like schools, churches, and hospitals, ending a longstanding policy that prevented them from operating in so-called “sensitive locations.”

“And now, in some states where there is greater cooperation with local police, a nanny simply driving to work could be arrested, deported, and separated from her family,” Cervantes notes.

Catalina’s mother experiences that anxiety firsthand every day when she gets in the car to pick up the children she cares for in the afternoons. “When she arrives, there are always police officers managing traffic. Sometimes she hides in the car, doesn’t get out. She waits for the kids to get in the car. It’s awful,” Catalina says. “If I meet her at the school, she feels a little better. But if she’s alone, she doesn’t.”

Without protective policies in place, like the “sensitive locations” policy, it is much harder for nannies to serve families and feel safe continuing their work, Cervantes warns.

“The way immigration enforcement measures are being applied across the country is happening with very little oversight and accountability. More people are becoming vulnerable to deportation because there is no longer prosecutorial discretion, for example, for parents or people with humanitarian reasons not to be deported. There’s no way to prioritize who should or shouldn’t be deported. Everyone is a priority. Therefore, everyone without status is in danger,” adds the CLASP director.

Catalina is currently studying, hoping to build her mother a house in Peru in case she decides to return one day. “Here my mom has no one, no family, no sisters, no mother. Nothing. She’s alone,” she says, but insists she doesn’t want to leave her alone either. “She worries more because she says, ‘My daughter will be left alone.’”

Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s growing push to advance its mass deportation plan could further harm the US childcare system.

“If we lose immigrant workers, especially those who care for our children, as a country we will suffer. If deportations continue at the current pace, if this budget proposal passes Congress—which would allow the administration to further increase its enforcement measures—and if we keep seeing more people lose their immigration status, then this will have a very negative impact on the workforce overall, making it harder for all working mothers and fathers to find childcare and go to work,” Cervantes says.

This is the invisible role of Catalina’s mother: she is the one who allows others to work while their children are cared for. Without her and many like her, the United States would be a very different country.

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Israel has accepted the new proposal for a ceasefire with Hamas from US envoy Steve Witkoff, according to an Israeli official.

Meanwhile, Hamas on Thursday said it “was reviewing the new Witkoff proposal” and was “responsibly studying it in a way that serves the interests of our people, provides relief, and achieves a permanent ceasefire.”

According to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the hostage families earlier in the day that he had accepted Witkoff’s proposal.

During her briefing on Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that “special envoy Witkoff and the President submitted a ceasefire proposal to Hamas that Israel backed and supported” and that discussions are ongoing.

“We hope that a cease fire in Gaza will take place so we can return all of the hostages home and that’s been a priority for this administration from the beginning,” Leavitt added.

Earlier on Thursday, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalal Smotrich said accepting the proposal would be “sheer madness,” writing on social media that he “will not allow such a thing to happen. Period.”

But Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the proposal “publicly and immediately.” He said he would support the government, even if its far-right members abandoned it.

Bahbah, who led the group “Arab Americans for Trump” during the 2024 presidential campaign, has been working on behalf of the administration.

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China will not send its defense minister to this year’s Shangri-La Dialogue, shunning a chance for a high-level meeting with US and Asian counterparts as tensions simmer with Washington.

China announced Thursday it will instead be represented by a delegation from the People’s Liberation Army National Defense University, marking the first time in five years a high-level delegation from Beijing will miss Asia’s largest defense and security summit.

The United States will be represented by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the event, which often provides opportunities on the sidelines for rare face-to-face meetings between top generals and defense officials from the US and China.

Last year then-US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Minister of National Defense Adm. Dong Jun on the sidelines of the event and the two pledged to continue a US-China dialogue amid simmering military tensions over Taiwan and Chinese aggression in the South China Sea.

Beijing’s decision not to send Dong this year throws into question whether there will be any meeting between the US and China at a time of heightened tensions between the two.

China has railed against America’s efforts in recent years to tighten its alliances and defense posture in Asia, while economic frictions rose to historic levels earlier this year after US President Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs on China sparked a tit-for-tat between the two countries that saw duties rise to more than 100% on each other’s goods.

While the two sides announced a temporary tariff truce earlier this month, tensions flared against this week. On Wednesday, two days before the forum’s opening, the US aimed a shock double punch targeting software exports to Chinese tech companies and study visas granted to Chinese students, risking a fragile trade war truce between Washington and Beijing.

At a Chinese Defense Ministry press conference on Thursday, a spokesperson ducked a question on why Beijing was not sending its defense minister to the Singapore forum, expected to be attended by defense chiefs from around Asia, including many more closely tied to Washington than Beijing.

China was “open to communication at all levels between the two sides,” a ministry spokesperson said when asked about a potential sidelines meeting with the US delegation.

“They’re torqued at us,” the official said.

“It’s a signal that they are concerned about the level of engagement, specifically with the United States, to send a message that everything is not completely normal within that and there’s probably some other underlying reasons about just uncertainty about what Shangri-La is intended to accomplish,” the official said.

China has traditionally had few friends at Shangri-La and its speakers face real-time, unscripted questioning from journalists and academics attending the conference.

Last year, Defense Minister Dong faced tough questions after, in a Friday note keynote speech, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. denounced illegal, coercive and aggressive actions in the South China Sea in an apparent allusion to China.

China’s military has also been in the spotlight in recent years as its top ranks have been roiled by a sweeping corruption purge, with more than a dozen high-ranking figures in China’s defense establishment ousted since 2023.

Analysts said the absence of a high-level Chinese delegation at the defense summit may signal Beijing is emphasizing economics and trade over military relations in its foreign affairs at this time.

“While surely security engagements such (the Shangri-La Dialogue) … do matter in the broader scheme of geopolitics, at this juncture it seems regional governments are perhaps even more concerned about the tariff impact on their economies,” said Collin Koh, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore

US is ‘here to deter adversaries’

Ahead of the weekend conference, much attention has focused on how US-led alliances across the region that grew during the Biden administration would hold up under Trump’s second term.

There was broad consensus among analysts that unlike the turmoil Trump has caused in Europe – with threats to pull back from NATO and abandon Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion – the US role in Asia has largely been consistent, centered on a policy to counter Chinese influence and back Taiwan.

Hegseth’s first trip to Asia as Defense Secretary began in the Philippines – on the front lines of China’s increasingly aggressive posture in Asia – where he said the US would work with allies to “reestablish deterrence” to counter “China’s aggression” in the Indo-Pacific.

On Friday, during an early morning workout with sailors aboard a US Navy ship in Singapore, he had a similar message:

“We send the signal to our allies and partners, hey, here in the Indo Pacific, America’s here, and we’re not going anywhere. We’re here to deter adversaries who would seek us harm.” Analysts noted that US-led military exercises, especially those involving key allies Japan, Australia, the Philippines and South Korea, have continued or even been bolstered in 2025.

But while increased US involvement is welcome by those participating in such exercises, Washington must be careful they don’t aggravate China so much that new tensions threaten the security of regional nations that are not US treaty allies, said Evan Laksmana, editor of the 2025 Asia Pacific Regional Security Assessment compiled by the International Institute of Strategic Studies.

“The deepening of US security engagement is welcome but not so far on the strategic side that it raises tensions,” he said.

On Thursday, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang said China “attaches great importance to the military relations” with the US, but warned Washington against “conjuring up a powerful enemy for itself whether intentionally or unintentionally.”

“Such imagination is not rational and extremely dangerous,” Zhang said.

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