The White House on Thursday last week released its latest National Security Strategy report unveiling US President Donald Trump’s foreign policy for his second term. It mentioned “Taiwan” eight times, with wording regarded as more explicit, militarized and geopolitical than the previous versions, and for the first time made “deterring a conflict over Taiwan” a priority.
Regarding the Asia-Pacific region, ranked as the primary focus of the Trump administration outside of the Americas, the 33-page report stated that the US’ strategic goal is winning the economic future, and preventing military conflict.
The report has omitted the “one China” policy it repeatedly mentioned previously, and no longer marked China as a “revisionist” power or major strategic competitor, as the 2017 version did in Trump’s first presidential term. The Trump administration is taking a more appeasing approach to ease tensions between Washington and Beijing, and to set more balanced economic relations with China.
However, the report also unprecedentedly made Taiwan a key indicator of regional and global stability, indirectly highlighting that China’s coercive actions and a potential invasion of Taiwan are threats to the US’ and global interests.
It emphasized Taiwan’s strategic importance in the geopolitical stability of the Asia-Pacific region, especially for the first island chain and even the second island chain.
“There is, rightly, much focus on Taiwan, partly because of Taiwan’s dominance of semiconductor production, but mostly because Taiwan provides direct access to the Second Island Chain, and splits Northeast and Southeast Asia into two distinct theaters,” the report said. “Hence, deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority.”
The US “will build a military capable of denying aggression anywhere in the First Island Chain,” it said, adding that one of its main goals is to “strengthen the US and its allies’ ability to deter attempts to use force against Taiwan and prevent the adversary from changing the regional balance, leaving us unable to defend Taiwan.”
Deterring a Chinese invasion of Taiwan has become a focus of US strategic deployments in Asia.
Although China was not labeled a military “adversary” in the report, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at a forum on Saturday said one of the US military’s main priorities is “to deter China through strength,” and that the “US does not want to strangle China, but to ensure that none of Washington’s allies would be vulnerable to military aggression.”
The report put forward a “collective defense” initiative and stated that the US “will work to align the actions of our allies and partners with our joint interest in preventing domination by any single competitor nation,” highlighting Trump’s foreign policy of requiring allies to share in more responsibilities, and contribute to self-defense and regional peace, relatively reposition US more a supporting role.
Major democratic countries, including Japan, the Philippines, South Korea and Australia, have established multifaceted alliances for security and stability. Such moves are partially facilitated by the US, but are mostly driven by China’s military aggression and territorial expansionism, which have led to widespread unrest in the Asia-Pacific region.
Japan has vowed to increase its defense budget and work closely with like-minded countries to oppose any unilateral efforts to alter the “status quo” through force, with its Defense White Paper 2025 stating that the international community is at its highest risk of conflict since World War II and naming China as “the greatest strategic challenge Japan has ever faced.”
In addition to deepening its alliance with the US, Japan has boosted military cooperation with the Philippines through the Reciprocal Access Agreement effective this year, and established the Framework for Strategic Defense Coordination with Australia.
The Philippines has launched a new defense strategy, the Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept, to transform its military capabilities and leverage partnerships, particularly with the US, to protect its sovereignty and economic interests against threats such as Chinese expansionism. It is also deepening military and security cooperation with Taiwan.
The US, the UK, France, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and, for the first time, Vietnam have this year sent military vessels through the Taiwan Strait in support of regional stability and freedom.
Sitting in a core strategic position in the first island chain and in the face of Chinese aggression, President William Lai (賴清德) has pledged to increase Taiwan’s defense budget to 5 percent of GDP by 2030 and to speed up military reforms. He also called for an international democratic alliance to counter authoritarianism.
Although, regretfully, there are political diversions and obstruction by domestic pro-China forces, Taiwan must commit more to self-defense, and share in the responsibility of guarding regional and global stability.
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