The Biden administration’s national defense strategy will continue to prioritize China’s communist regime as the foremost challenge to the nation,
according to an unclassified fact sheet released by the Pentagon.
The fact sheet was released on March 28, the same day the Pentagon submitted the classified 2022 National Defense Strategy to Congress. It followed shortly after the
unveiling of the administration’s proposed defense budget of $773 billion for 2023, which focused on China as the key pacing challenge.
The factsheet referred to China as the “most consequential strategic competitor and the pacing challenge for the Department,” and said that the national security strategy would focus first on “prioritizing the PRC [People’s Republic of China] challenge in the Indo-Pacific, then the Russia challenge in Europe.”
It further said that the Pentagon would work toward increasing resiliency and joint force capabilities, while also deterring strategic attacks.
Under this framework, its first priority will be “defending the homeland, paced to the growing multi-domain threat posed by the PRC,” the factsheet said.
The announcement follows some
speculation that the United States could be forced to divert resources to Europe amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been
accused of tacitly supporting.
It also follows
allegations that the CCP was considering a plea from Russia to provide military and economic assistance for the latter’s ongoing war in Ukraine. NATO leaders
condemned Russia for the war and called upon China not to provide such support.
President Joe Biden similarly
threatened “consequences” for the CCP should it provide such support, and a recent poll found that a majority of Americans
believed China should be sanctioned if it follows through with aid to Russia.
The administration has been operating according to an interim national security strategy for the past year, and faces multiple crises both domestically and internationally. Not the least of which is the possibility of
facing the combined nuclear arsenals of China and Russia.
To this end, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines
cautioned that Sino-Russian cooperation would only grow in the coming years, and Admiral John Aquilino, U.S. Indo-Pacific commander,
said that the CCP sought nothing less than a new international order carved out “at the expense of all others.”
The announcement comes amid numerous public comments from current and former lawmakers and officials, who warn that the threat from the CCP must be defended against aggressively.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)
said that the CCP was the “greatest threat facing America.” Likewise, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
said that the communist regime should be considered as an adversary rather that a competitor.
Former Assistant Secretary of State David Stillwell, meanwhile,
said that the United States was in a “new Cold War” with the CCP.
On the home front, U.S. Army Secretary Christine Wormuth
said that a war with China would reach the mainland United States. And the Justice Department
issued several arrest warrants this month relation CCP conspiracies to harass intimidate, and spy on American citizens in the United States.
One such case
involved an alleged plot to attack a Congressional hopeful in New York. Another
included spying on and stalking an American Olympian and her family.
The Pentagon said an unclassified version of the 2022 National Defense Strategy will be released in tandem with the release of the administration’s forthcoming national security strategy. But no official release date has been given.
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