The Biden administration on Wednesday released its long-awaited National Security Strategy that identifies China as Washington’s “most consequential geopolitical challenge.”
While spending tens of billions on a proxy war against Russia, US officials have repeatedly made clear that they view China as more of a challenge in the long term. The strategy says that the top foreign policy priorities for the US are to “compete” with China and “constrain” Russia.
The strategy says that while Russia poses an “immediate threat,” China is the “only competitor with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to advance that objective.”
The strategy falls in line with the rhetoric that has come out of the Biden administration. Biden officials have frequently accused Russia and China of looking to change the so-called “rules-based order” and framed competition with the two countries as a battle between “autocracy and democracy.”
The strategy declares that “the post-Cold War era is definitively over and
a competition is underway between the major powers to shape what comes next.” To compete with China and Russia, the strategy says that the US will increase cooperation with “like-minded” countries and deepen alliances and partnerships.
While framing the relationship with China and Russia as a competition, the strategy also says that the US is willing to work with its “geopolitical rivals” on shared challenges.
Delivering remarks on the strategy, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan claimed that the US was not trying to divide the world into blocs. “we will not try to divide the world into rigid blocks. We are not seeking to have competition tip over into confrontation or a new Cold War,” he said.
