{"id":112463,"date":"2026-01-24T05:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T05:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=112463"},"modified":"2026-01-24T05:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T05:53:09","slug":"china-no-longer-pentagons-top-security-priority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=112463","title":{"rendered":"China no longer Pentagon\u2019s top security priority"},"content":{"rendered":"
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China is no longer the top security priority for the US, according to the Pentagon\u2019s new National Defense Strategy.<\/p>\n

The document, published once every four years, instead says that the security of the US homeland and Western Hemisphere is the department\u2019s chief concern, adding that Washington has long neglected the \u201cconcrete interests\u201d of Americans.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon also says it will offer \u201cmore limited\u201d support to US allies.<\/p>\n

It follows the publication last year of the US National Security Strategy, which said that Europe faced \u201ccivilizational collapse\u201d and did not cast Russia as a threat to the US. At the time, Moscow said the document was \u201clargely consistent\u201d with its vision.<\/p>\n

By comparison, the 2022 National Defense Strategy named the \u201cmulti-domain threat\u201d posed by China as its top defence priority. In 2018, the document described \u201crevisionist powers\u201d, such as China and Russia, as the \u201ccentral challenge\u201d to US security.<\/p>\n

The 34-page document, released on Friday, largely reinforces policy positions staked out by the Trump administration over its first year back in office.<\/p>\n

In that time, US President Donald Trump has\u00a0seized Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, carried out strikes against\u00a0alleged drug boats\u00a0in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean, and more recently, applied pressure on US allies to\u00a0acquire Greenland.<\/p>\n

The strategy reiterated that the Pentagon \u201cwill guarantee US military and commercial access to key terrain, especially the Panama Canal, Gulf of America, and Greenland\u201d.<\/p>\n

The document also says the Trump administration\u2019s approach will be \u201cfundamentally different from the grandiose strategies of the past post\u2013Cold War administrations\u201d.<\/p>\n

It adds: \u201cOut with utopian idealism; in with hardnosed realism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Relations with China are to be approached through \u201cstrength, not confrontation\u201d. The goal \u201cis not to dominate China; nor is it to strangle or humiliate them\u201d, the document says.<\/p>\n

Unlike in previous versions of the strategy, Taiwan, the self-governing island claimed by China, is not mentioned. However, the document does write that the US aims to \u201cprevent anyone, including China, from being able to dominate us or our allies\u201d.<\/p>\n

Late last year, the US announced a\u00a0vast arms sale to Taiwan\u00a0worth $11bn (\u00a38.2bn), leading China to hold military drills around the island in response.<\/p>\n

The strategy also calls for greater \u201cburden-sharing\u201d from US allies, saying that partners have been \u201ccontent\u201d to let Washington \u201csubsidize their defense\u201d.<\/p>\n

Though, it denies this demonstrates a move towards \u201cisolationism\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the contrary, it means a focused and genuinely strategic approach to the threats our nation faces,\u201d it says, adding that it does not want to conflate American interests \u201cwith those of the rest of the world \u2013 that a threat to a person halfway around the world is the same as to an American.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, it says allies, especially Europe, \u201cwill take the lead against threats that are less severe for us but more so for them\u201d.<\/p>\n

Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago, is described as a \u201cpersistent but manageable threat to NATO\u2019s eastern members\u201d.<\/p>\n

The strategy also outlines a \u201cmore limited\u201d role for US deterrence of North Korea. South Korea is \u201ccapable of taking primary responsibility\u201d for the task, it adds.<\/p>\n

In a speech made at the World Economic Forum earlier this week, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the old world order is\u00a0\u201cnot coming back\u201d\u00a0and urged fellow middle powers \u2013 like South Korea, Canada and Australia \u2013 to come together.<\/p>\n

\u201cMiddle powers must act together because if we\u2019re not at the table, we\u2019re on the menu,\u201d Carney said at the Davos meeting.<\/p>\n

That came as French President Emmanuel Macron also warned of a \u201cshift towards a world without rules\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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