‘China, China, China’: Trump’s new Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan sets US defence priorities
- Patrick Shanahan tells Pentagon staff to focus on the US National Defence Strategy that highlights the ‘Great Power competition’ with Russia and China
- The strategy views China as ‘a strategic competitor’ seeking Indo-Pacific regional hegemony and to displace the US in global pre-eminence
Patrick Shanahan, the acting US defence secretary, singled out China as a key priority in a “great power competition” on his first full day in his new role at the Pentagon on Wednesday, continuing a course set by his predecessor.
Shanahan, who replaced James Mattis on Tuesday, told Pentagon staff members to focus on the National Defence Strategy, a broad review that highlights a new era of “Great Power competition” with Russia and China.
“While we are focused on ongoing operations, Acting Secretary Shanahan told the team to remember China, China, China,” an anonymous defence official was quoted as saying.
The US accuses Beijing of a continuing pattern of military and economic espionage and has criticised China's ambitious “Belt and Road” trade and infrastructure initiative as being a form of economic coercion.
“In 2019, the National Defence Strategy remains our guide. America's military strength remains our focus,” Shanahan said in a New Year's message on Twitter.
The national defence strategy, released by Mattis in January last year, describes China as “a strategic competitor” that “will continue to pursue a military modernisation program that seeks Indo-Pacific regional hegemony in the near term and displacement of the United States to achieve global pre-eminence in the future”.