What Trump's new National Security Strategy means for China

Welcome back to What’s Happening in China, your weekly China brief.

Before we dive in, please consider liking, commenting, restacking, or sharing this newsletter with others. Your help in reaching more readers means a lot.

Let’s jump into it.

— PC

---

Through the Lens

Beijing bicycles.

---

In Focus

I. U.S. National Security Strategy and countering China’s rise

US President Donald Trump’s new national security strategy frames America’s allies not just as partners, but as instruments to preserve US primacy and counter China’s rise, analysts say.

The strategy urges wealthy allies to increase defence spending, align more closely with Washington on measures such as export controls, and take greater responsibility for their regions, a shift that recasts long-standing alliances as tools in great-power competition.

The 33-page document declares that the era of the US “propping up the entire world order like Atlas” is over.

“The United States must work with our treaty allies and partners – who together add another US$35 trillion in economic power to our own US$30 trillion national economy (together constituting more than half the world economy) – to counteract predatory economic practices,” it states.

Its goal is explicit: “to help safeguard our prime position in the world economy and ensure that allied economies do not become subordinate to any competing power.”

It adds, “We will also work to align the actions of our allies and partners with our joint interest in preventing domination by any single competitor nation.”

The strategy identifies China as a near-peer competitor and emphasises US efforts to counter its economic, technological and military influence.

Read: Trump recasts US allies as tools to counter China in security playbook: analysts (SCMP)

Related:

• 2025-National-Security-Strategy (PDF) (The White House)

• Unpacking a Trump Twist of the National Security Strategy (Council on Foreign Relations)

• Experts react: What Trump’s National Security Strategy means for US foreign policy (Atlantic Council)

• New US National Security Strategy—Three Things It Says About China (Newsweek)

• Deterring Taiwan conflict a ‘priority’: US national security report (SCMP)

• Trump’s new national security blueprint aims to combat China’s rise in Latin America (SCMP)