John Grady
China is the top priority in the Trump administration’s national security strategy, but that’s balanced with a sharpened focus on the Western Hemisphere, a panel of defense experts agreed Thursday.
Mackenzie Eaglen, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said, “China first, full stop” sits atop the security concerns in an administration with a diverse global outlook.
Beijing’s investments in developing weapons systems like its hypersonic glide vehicle reinforce the point of placing China as the nation’s top security concern, she added.
Looking at the immediate threat of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, Michael O’Hanlon, director of Brookings’ Strobe Talbott Center, said he was “a little more hopeful” that such an attack would not any time happen soon. “I’m not saying deterrence is about to fail” when it comes to holding back Xi Jin ping’s ambitions to take control of the self-governing island by force if necessary.
O’Hanlon noted the steps taken by the United States and its Pacific allies to bolster their own defenses and readiness to respond to possible China aggression in the Indo-Pacific has been effective.
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