Washington reframes competition with China in latest national security strategy

Washington’s latest National Security Strategy (NSS), published December 5, tones down the China rhetoric, but still pushes hard in several key areas.

Where Washington eases off:

• The NSS reframes competition with China as an economic and technological contest rather than a clash of political systems.
• It no longer names China as America's primary foreign policy challenge, de-emphasizing China as the central organizing principle of US foreign policy.
• It prioritizes a “mutually advantageous” economic relationship with China, signaling a willingness to transact where interests align.
• It embraces non-interference and eschews promoting democracy and human rights, echoing Beijing’s sovereignty-first stance.
• It directs significant criticism toward US allies, exposing potential fractures in Western cohesion that Beijing can exploit.

Where the NSS still has bite:

• The NSS doubles down on working with allies to “deny any attempt to seize Taiwan,” treating the island as a non-negotiable strategic asset.
• It foregrounds China’s “predatory” trade practices and overcapacity as national security threats, ensuring that tariffs and protectionist industrial policies will remain entrenched.
• It prioritizes export controls and critical mineral independence, in direct conflict with Beijing’s ambitions to dominate frontier technologies and upstream resources.
• It underscores the importance of deepening the regional security architecture through the Quad, which will reinforce fears of a coordinated US-led encirclement strategy.
• It explicitly revives the Monroe Doctrine to block “non-Hemispheric competitors” from the Americas, directly challenging China’s port and infrastructure footprint in the region.
• By spotlighting subsidies, dumping, and IP theft, it signals continued scrutiny of China’s industrial practices.

Our take: Ultimately, Washington’s NSS pivot matters little to Beijing’s strategic calculus.

• The leadership has long since concluded that the US goal is to permanently arrest China’s rise – and has reoriented its technological and industrial development strategy accordingly.