Plan for national security by Joe Biden targets China and Russia: The White House released a long-awaited national security plan on Wednesday. The project aims to stop China’s rise and emphasizes the need for democratic countries to work together to solve problems.
The 48-page report, delayed by Russia‘s invasion of Ukraine, doesn’t change how we think about foreign policy or develop any necessary new ideas. Instead, it focuses on how important it is for the US to take the lead on global issues like the rise of authoritarianism and climate change.
Even after Russia’s invasion, the plan says that China is the biggest threat to the international order. So, if the US wants to keep its place in the world, it must win the superpower’s economic arms race.
Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, said, “The People’s Republic of China has the desire and, more and more, the ability to change the international order in a way that tilts the global playing field in its favor.”
He said that Washington must take care of its relationship with China while dealing with global problems like climate change, food shortages, infectious diseases, terrorism, the energy transition, and inflation.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not answer right away when they were asked.
As a result, Biden faces new issues brought into stark relief by Russia’s actions, including fraying relations with longtime ally Saudi Arabia and India’s reliance on Russian energy.
Some critical foreign policy issues, like the tariffs on Chinese goods set up by his predecessor Donald Trump that cost US importers billions, are still up in the air.
Following OPEC+’s announcement last week that it will lower its oil output objective despite US objections. Sullivan reiterated remarks made this week by Biden that the US is “reevaluating” its relationship with Saudi Arabia.
Former US President Barack Obama’s senior diplomat for East Asia, Daniel Russel, said the plan was in line with Biden’s principles of internal rejuvenation, bolstering allies and democratic institutions, and striking a balance between cooperation and competitiveness.
He noted that while it commits to avoiding just seeing the world through the lens of strategic rivalry, “competition with China suffuses every chapter” and that during its 21-month gestation period, the strategy “obviously altered to put overwhelming emphasis on competition with China.”
It would be impossible to do this without China, and there was no indication of how such collaboration would be attained, according to Russell, who noted that the paper committed to assembling the largest coalition of states to solve global concerns.
The document’s only mention of North Korea brought attention to how little the US could do to restrain that country’s nuclear and missile development.
This was noteworthy, according to Russel, “not only because it moves past a persistent and existential threat so quickly, but also because it frames the strategy as’seeking sustained diplomacy toward denuclearization,’ even though North Korea has so convincingly shown that it utterly rejects negotiations.”
When it filed its proposed budget on March 28, the administration intended to send the plan to Congress.
“Recognizes that we must modernize and reinforce our military,” said Jack Reed, leader of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who welcomed the publication.
The Rhode Island Democrat said that “this would need wise investments in platforms and equipment, quick development and integration of cutting-edge technology,” and he expressed excitement for the Pentagon’s release of an unclassified copy of the National Defense Strategy.
The Ukraine crisis, according to Sullivan, delayed Biden’s foreign policy stance but did not “fundamentally change” it.
But he said, “I do think it brings to life the most important parts of our strategy: the importance of focusing on friends, the need to strengthen the democratic world’s hand, and standing up for other democracies and democratic ideas.”
