US sets out security agenda ‘to prevail in strategic competition with China’, other nations
- It describes Beijing as the only competitor with the power to ‘mount a sustained challenge to a stable and open international system’
- Restoring global leadership role and boosting alliances are priorities in directive that reflects Biden administration’s tougher line on China
National security priorities included defending and bolstering the US and its democracy at home, promoting a “favourable distribution of power” to deter or prevent adversaries from threatening the US and its allies, and leadership in a rules-based international order underwritten by democratic alliances.
“Taken together, this agenda will strengthen our enduring advantages and allow us to prevail in strategic competition with China or with any other nation,” it said. “By restoring US credibility and reasserting forward-looking global leadership, we will ensure that America, not China, sets the international agenda, working alongside others to shape new global norms and agreements that advance our interests and reflect our values.”
While Beijing has been eager to call for a reset in relations after Trump’s tumultuous term, Biden has said he expects “extreme competition” with China, while leaving space for cooperation on issues such as climate change and the pandemic.
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The White House national security agenda also stressed that the US not only needed to strengthen its network of allies and partners, but to make smart defence investments, confront China’s unfair trade practices, defend freedom of navigation and to support China’s neighbours in “defending their rights to make independent political choices free of coercion or undue foreign influence”.
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The island’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou on Wednesday said there had been continuous expressions of strong support for Taiwan under the Biden administration and reiterations that the US security guarantee for Taiwan was “rock-solid”.
“Taiwan and the US have the same philosophy and collective goals when it comes to safeguarding democratic values, and the foreign ministry will continue to work closely with Biden’s government to strengthen our close global partnership, based on the foundations of our long-term and deep relationship,” she said.
“We will ensure that US companies do not sacrifice American values in doing business in China,” it said, seemingly a reference to US efforts to ban forced labour from Xinjiang in its supply chains. “On all these issues, we will work to forge a common approach with like-minded countries.”
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But the agenda left room for cooperation with China in areas such as climate change, global health security, arms control and non-proliferation, engagement that would be done “from a position of confidence and strength”.
“We will conduct practical, results-oriented diplomacy with Beijing and work to reduce the risk of misperception and miscalculation,” it said. “As we do, we will rally our allies and partners to join us, pooling our negotiating leverage and showing our collective power and resolve.”
Pang Zhongying, a specialist in international relations at Ocean University of China, said Beijing would be disappointed with the Biden administration’s approach to “continue and even elevate” the tough policies of the Trump era and to strengthen alliances to deal with China.
Additional reporting by Lawrence Chung