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The new guidelines were issued by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Wednesday (9/6/2021) Washington time. The guidelines were drawn up by order of the White House in February.
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However, the new guidelines are classified, with Austin and other military officials offering few details about the document.
“The initiative I’m proposing today is nested within the larger U.S. administration’s approach to China and will help inform the development of the National Defense Strategy that we’re working on,” Austin said in a written statement.
In a separate Pentagon press release, citing Beijing as “the nation’s number one challenge”, senior defense officials provided additional background, including calls for investing in America’s unrivaled network of allies and partners and increasing deterrence in all domains of warfare.
While officials noted that the guidelines seek to align the department with China’s priorities, they declined to elaborate.
Even before the guidelines were issued Wednesday, President Joe Biden cited China as a top concern and sought to improve ties with allies to challenge Beijing.
Biden pursued a similar policy of the previous Donald Trump administration. In March, Biden held his first meeting as president with his counterparts in the “Quad” bloc, a security forum made up of the US, Australia, Japan and India.
Often dubbed the “NATO of Asia”, the Quad alliance was revived with help from Trump after a long hiatus, with his administration seeking to use the bloc to confront China in the Indo-Pacific region.
The Quad member states have conducted a number of joint military exercises near China. Meanwhile, the US Navy has made several transits of warships in the Taiwan Strait under the pretext of freedom of navigation which has drawn strong criticism from China.
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The Pentagon’s infatuation with Beijing was further underscored on Tuesday, when Undersecretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks outlined how the bulk of the department’s $715 billion budget request for 2022 will be devoted to confronting China.
“[Republik Rakyat China] increasingly competitive, and has the ability, uniquely, to challenge the international system and America’s interests within it,” he said at a virtual event hosted by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS).
“In advancing American interests, the department must be prepared to not only serve as a supporter of our diplomatic and economic tools…but also to prevent military aggression. This is especially true for the PRC,” he said.
His comments came after the US Indo-Pacific Command called for a $27 billion increase in spending over the next five years to deter Beijing, also calling for building an extensive missile network off China’s east coast.
While Biden vowed to violate many of Trump’s policies while he was in office, his administration has struggled to distinguish itself from its predecessors when it comes to China.
In remarks on Tuesday, Hicks himself highlighted the similarities, noting that Biden’s approach had a “continuous thread” with Trump’s 2018 National Defense Strategy, which seeks to focus on “great power competition” with China and Russia.
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