Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth distributed a memo in mid-March ordering the Pentagon to put its focus on preparing for a war with China, a nuclear-armed power, by “assuming risk” in Europe and other parts of the world, The Washington Post reported on Saturday.
The Post didn’t publish the full memo, known as the Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance, but said it “outlines, in broad and sometimes partisan detail, the execution of President Donald Trump’s vision to prepare for and win a potential war against Beijing and defend the United States from threats in the ‘near abroad,’ including Greenland and the Panama Canal.”
The Pentagon has considered China the top “threat” facing the US since the first Trump administration, but the Post report said the memo is “extraordinary in its description of the potential invasion of Taiwan as the exclusive animating scenario that must be prioritized over other potential dangers — reorienting the vast US military architecture toward the Indo-Pacific region beyond its homeland defense mission.”

The report said that the guidance from Hegseth says the Pentagon’s force planning construct “will consider conflict only with Beijing when planning contingencies for a major power war” and leave the “threat from Moscow largely attended by European allies.”
Hegseth wrote that China “is the Department’s sole pacing threat, and denial of a Chinese fait accompli seizure of Taiwan — while simultaneously defending the US homeland is the Department’s sole pacing scenario.”
The memo reflects the Trump administration’s policy toward Europe and calls for NATO allies to take a “far greater” burden sharing. The document says that the US is unlikely to provide substantial support to Europe if Russia’s military advances in the region, saying the US will only provide nuclear deterrence.
The memo also calls for the US to pressure Taiwan to increase military spending “significantly.”
For years now, the US military has been openly preparing for war with China despite the risk of nuclear escalation. It has done this by expanding military bases in the Asia Pacific, building alliances, and increasing support for Taiwan. While being done in the name of deterrence, these steps have only increased tensions in the region, making conflict more likely.
The Post report says that Hegseth’s plans to prepare a “denial defense” of Taiwan include “increasing the troop presence through submarines, bombers, unmanned ships, and specialty units from the Army and Marine Corps, as well as a greater focus on bombs that destroy reinforced and subterranean targets.” His memo also calls for increasing the defenses of US troop positions in the region and establishing more weapons stockpiles.
Has this administration no other problems?!….
Neocon central or what?!….
As it was explained, the greatest problem for American elite is a prosperous China. If Chinese people live in misery and poverty, American elite would be happy. The happy prosperous China is the great danger for Satanic oligarchs because it offer to the people of the world an alternative to the western civilization.
China's middle class is larger than the entire U.S. population.. The happiest and healthiest people you will find anywhere !
That is a problem for American political-financial elite. Eventually it'll be obvious to everyone that Chinese people are living better than American people. Then American people may start thinking about changing their political system.
"If we can't find trouble, well, we'll just have to make some happen…"
Exactly. It is built into USA's DNA.
Remember Clinton whined that he did not have a war to oversee. So he sent off a couple of bombs or missiles into an Aspirin factory.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f70a072f2e209bde04224a2723601a5fa1e809b6fd0a800bb851d823ff3218f4.jpg
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Neocons are so obviously obvious. But also, HIMAR Russia while trying to convince them to join us against Iran and China. Am I too stupid to understand?
We have fallen so far behind in Great Game war fighting & debt that there is NO WAY we could ever challenge China!!!! And what about Russia…???? Does any sane person think that RUSSIA would help us defeat China and not join in taking us out to end the genocide & all the other provocations we constantly create?
It's over!!!!! $50 trillion of debt and a decade behind in nuclear weapons & TWO DECADES BEHIND IN MISSILE TECHNOOIGY!!!!! Even North Korea & Yemen have working hypersonic missiles, but we don''t!!!! We are the champion tough talkers but terrible losers in actual warfare. Hubris on steroids!!! Hubris precedes a great fall!!! But talking tough suceedes in politics. I used to feel safe here in America, but I don't any longer. As our policies only inflame Russia & China, the strongest well armed states on the planet!!!
I would like to add, “for no good reason whatsoever.” We could have competed with them in industry, economy, and progress instead. But we prefer WAR.
Further, if we would lead in world wide prosperity, just think what kind of world there would be.
No wars.
Every person secure.
(yeah, I dream a lot)
MAGA wants to do away with taxes. So, how do we pay for anything? Print more and more money.
Have to remember Cheney saying that "deficits don't matter anymore".
First a joke…
What do you get when you cross an Owl with a bungee cord?
US Foreign policy?
I'll bite. Whaddya got ?
See the video link.
It’s not a Rick Astley video, is it ?
I would never Rick Roll you.
This kind of stupidity and sucking up to the arms industry is literally more than 50 years old, when another baying jackass, Mark Clark, wanted to "fight China now."
Major General Smedley Butler is spinning in his grave.
"President Donald Trump’s vision to prepare for and win a potential war against Beijing…."
Actually that's Project 2025's vision.
"… and defend the United States from threats in the ‘near abroad,’ including Greenland…"
What f**king threat is coming from GREENLAND ? Did Trump just finish a season of "Vikings" on the History Channel ?
The USA has got to rescue those natural resources from the stealthy dangerous Greenlanders… (and have rights to the shipping lanes)
It’s the Icelandesh to be worried about – THEY called themselves Iceland (“ugh, who’d want to go THERE ?”) and the actual glacier-ridden ice mass Greenland (“oooh, that sounds pleasant and farmable !”) as possibly one of the oldest map-based propaganda dupes in human history.
Washington wants to do the same thing to Taiwan that they did to Ukraine. This has nothing to do with Taiwan's right to self-determination. It's sickening, disgusting, despicable, monstrous, immoral actions on the part of Washington, for the sole purpose of enriching the elites at the expense of ordinary people. This is what centralized political authority gets us. The elites have us right where they want us. And we the people allowed them to do this to us.
How much longer will the US survive with being the number one killer in the world?
Just shoot yourselves!!!!! You will suffer a lot less than if you go to war against CHINA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'
It was clear to everyone from the beginning that Trump's Ukrainian peace initiative is all about pivoting to China and Iran.
He wouldn't be pivoting away from Ukraine if Russia was losing.
Or if China wasn't developing so fast. Trump and his team realized that while they are wasting time and resources in Ukraine, the geopolitical balance is changing in favor of China and BRICS. So they decided to try to destabilize BRICS from other end.
If our side was winning in Ukraine then Trump would try to use this to enlist Russia to join forces with us against China.
The Soviet Union joined forces with us during WWII. Look what it got them.
Immediately, there were calls from our military geniuses to attack while the Soviet Union was weak (having lost 20 million souls fighting the Wehrmacht), and ever since.
My message to Russia: DO NOT TRUST AMERICA!
My message to Russia as well.
Soviet Union was attacked by Germany. Otherwise Stalin would be happy to be neutral in this war.
"enlist Russia to join forces with us against China" – now it is obvious to everyone that such a scenario is impossible.
Yes. I don't know how these people can think that Russia is so stupid that they don't realize that if they helped us to defeat China then we would turn on them next and they wouldn't have China as a partner. The United States has no strategic awareness.
I wouldn't order the man to pick up a pizza.
Perhaps this is the problem: https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=Trump+son%2c+Eric%2c+makes+cult+sign+and+wife+stops+him&refig=beccbdd8da76473d8d373ac1ed661a97&pc=DCTS&ru=%2fsearch%3fq%3dTrump%2bson%252C%2bEric%252C%2bmakes%2bcult%2bsign%2band%2bwife%2bstops%2bhim%26form%3dANNTH1%26refig%3dbeccbdd8da76473d8d373ac1ed661a97%26pc%3dDCTS&mmscn=vwrc&mid=E463448CA0489694F51DE463448CA0489694F51D&FORM=WRVORC&ntb=1&msockid=d5f96a8f0f1611f08a08c8fb553ceb37
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recently signed a memorandum of "Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance" to re-plan the U.S. military's priority goals, which is to prevent China from taking Taiwan. The Pentagon’s new “denial defense” guidelines for Taiwan include increasing troop presence through submarines, bombers, unmanned ships, and Army and Marine Corps special forces.
In other news —
The PLA (People’s Liberation Army) Eastern Theater Command's joint exercises encompass army, navy, air, and rocket forces, featuring multiple cutting-edge weapons with a high degree of combat realism and a strong operational focus. Senior Colonel Shi Yi, spokesperson for the theater command, explicitly stated that the drills serve as a "stern warning and forceful deterrent" against "Taiwan independence" secessionist forces, and are a "legitimate and necessary action" to safeguard China's sovereignty and national unity.
Taiwan and mainland China were one country when ROC (Taiwan) governed, but when PRC (Beijing) governed Taiwan became independent according to the rules-based international-order USA. This baloney is accepted legally by twelve tiny countries and de-facto, not legally, by the USA.
Perhaps it's a financial truism that capital flees jurisdictions that develop war proclamations and increasingly violate (Great Britain) personal freedoms. That topic begins near 48:00.
So it's with some irony that capital and gold are leaving Europe and entering the US amid the latter's hawkish stance toward Russia, China, Iran, and Yemen.
What could New Zealand and Russia offer to European and American expats? http://www.movetorussia.com
What an idiot! Does he understand that with China comes Russia? And with China and Russia comes Iran? this is totally irresponsible. This administration has proven to be the most unqualified, inept administration in decades. And that's saying something!