The US’ latest
National Security Strategy will go down in history as America’s most explicit abandonment of its “liberal hegemony” – its decades-long policy of spreading its liberal ideology to foreign countries through covert regime change operations or open invasions. “We seek good relations and peaceful commercial relations with the nations of the world without imposing on them democratic or other social change that differs widely from their traditions and histories,” the document says.
Does this mean the end of US interference in Hong Kong or other hostile actions? Don’t bet on it.
Even though stability has returned to Hong Kong after Beijing passed a national security law to neuter subversion here, Hong Kong needs to be on the alert for other threats arising from wanton US presidential impulses, congressional reflexes or deep-state infiltration.
Note how US President Donald Trump sent Nigeria a
“Christmas present” by launching missile attacks on terrorists allegedly linked to Islamic State, even though the national security document stresses that the US would focus on more narrowly defined “core” interests.
The references to Taiwan, spread across three paragraphs under the heading of “Deterring Military Threats”, pose the most hazardous risk to regional security. The strategy makes no reference to commitment to the one-China policy, nor opposition to
Taiwan independence. The emphasis has shifted to deterring “unilateral change to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait” through “military overmatch”.
The narrative on Taiwan is a textbook illustration of “offensive realism” in international politics: the theory suggests that the most powerful state will seek to maximise its power in the international system through maintaining regional dominance, while ensuring a rising power does not achieve dominance in its own region.
