China continues to be the target of US security and strategic concerns. An abiding policy focus since Donald Trump’s first presidential term in 2017-2021, the anxiety about Beijing has been reiterated in Joe Biden’s current tenure with all the early signals suggesting the policy will continue when Trump assumes office again on January 20.
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With his many senior appointments announced being well-known China hawks, the concern about China is clearly recurring. This was more than evident when Trump recently attempted to re-stake America’s claim over the Panama Canal and urged Denmark to give up Greenland, invoking China as the trigger.
In the wide-ranging, rambling, headline-grabbing press conference at his private residence Mar-a-Lago in Florida on January 7, Trump accused China of controlling the Panama Canal and adversely affecting US national and economic security. In relation to Greenland, he cited Chinese and Russian activity in the region as degrading US national security.
Many of the assertions are counterfactual and have been refuted, but China’s threat to the US-led global order will be an abiding theme in Trump 2.0.
With mere weeks left in office, Biden’s team last month released the Pentagon’s annual report on China’s military and security developments. The comprehensive report is rich in detail about China’s growing military capabilities across the board – from nuclear weapons to conventional forces, across space, cyber and new technologies – and how this would affect US security interests.
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Referring to the US 2022 national security strategy and 2022 national defence strategy, the Pentagon said that China “is the only competitor to the United States with the intent and, increasingly, the capacity to reshape the international order” and that it remains the “pacing challenge” for the defence department.