China’s new national security white paper reveals the sweeping plan of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to merge internal control with global ambition, framing ideology, sovereignty, and economic resilience as tools for reshaping the world order.
Beijing has released a new white paper on national security, titled “China’s National Security in the New Era,” marking a major shift in the CCP’s approach. While previous white papers focused narrowly on military and defense, this new report presents a sweeping framework that redefines national security as the foundation of all state policy. It formalizes Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s doctrine as a central pillar of governance, guiding both domestic priorities and foreign strategy.
The paper presents a broad vision of security that extends beyond traditional defense to encompass political stability, economic development, technological self-reliance, and control of emerging domains. Central to this vision is the concept of “holistic security,” which combines conventional priorities such as sovereignty and military readiness with next-generation concepts, including cyberspace, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, public health, and food system resiliency.
The CCP frames political security as the “lifeline” of national security, asserting that internal and external threats must be addressed together to preserve regime stability and economic continuity. The paper underscores the Party’s insistence on ideological conformity and its intolerance of dissent, calling for political control across all areas of governance. It advocates early threat detection through Party networks embedded in institutions and strict regulation of public discourse, especially online.
The white paper promotes China’s Global Security Initiative (GSI) as a counterweight to Western-led security frameworks. Introduced by Xi in 2023, the GSI lays out Beijing’s vision for reshaping global security governance, rejecting what it calls Cold War mentality, unilateralism, and bloc politics.
While the CCP accuses the United States of forming divisive blocs, it presents its own initiatives—including the Belt and Road (BRI, also known as One Belt, One Road), BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and partnerships with ostracized countries such as Russia, Iran, and North Korea—as inclusive efforts that promote what it calls multilateralism and global equity under a rules-based international order.
The paper places special emphasis on emerging security domains, including cybersecurity, outer space, maritime rights, and the protection of overseas infrastructure tied to Belt and Road projects. It also identifies national grain reserves, seed technology, and energy diversification as strategic priorities for reducing reliance on foreign supply chains.
Beijing pledges to strengthen its risk management systems to guard against external threats, such as economic sanctions—measures clearly aimed at the United States. Xi is positioning the Chinese economy to endure a prolonged trade conflict with the Trump administration and has drawn lessons from the sanctions imposed on Russia over Ukraine, preparing China to withstand similar pressure should it invade Taiwan.
These concerns were echoed in recent testimony before Congress by retired U.S. Army Gen. Charles Flynn, who warned that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan is “no longer distant or theoretical.” Viewing Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te as a disruptive force pushing the island toward formal independence, Beijing has intensified its pressure campaign.
U.S. partners in Southeast Asia, especially the Philippines and Vietnam, should expect ongoing friction in the South China Sea. The white paper defines the CCP’s maritime claims as a core national security issue, asserting Beijing’s right to defend what it views as sovereign territory, regardless of international rulings.
This position is reinforced by the Foreign Relations Law (2023), which codifies the CCP’s control over foreign policy and permits countermeasures against actions deemed harmful to the Chinese regime’s sovereignty or development. Under Beijing’s doctrine of lawfare, even military seizures of disputed territory are framed as acts of self-defense, as the regime views regions like the South China Sea and Taiwan as integral parts of the Chinese homeland.
Ultimately, the CCP’s new white paper lays out a security framework that is expansive, ideological, and authoritarian. Its release formalizes the idea that communist China’s global rise is inseparable from the Party’s domestic grip on power and its ambition to shape a new world order led by Beijing.
