U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin participates in a news briefing at the Pentagon May 6, 2021 in Arlington, Virginia.
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WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday directed the Pentagon to place China and its military build-up at the center of American defense policy.
The classified Pentagon-wide directive comes on the heels of recommendations from a 23-member task force aimed at assessing the U.S. military’s China strategy.
The task force, unveiled by President Joe Biden during his first visit as commander in chief to the Pentagon, includes representatives from the sister services, several combatant commands, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the office of the secretary of Defense and the intelligence community.
“This directive from the Secretary is ultimately about getting the Department’s house in order and ensuring that the department lives up to the stated prioritization of China as the number one pacing challenge,” explained a senior Defense official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement.
Austin’s directive comes as the administration and lawmakers in both parties ramp up initiatives to counter China’s international ambitions, from economic and trade policy to security concerns. The Senate on Tuesday passed a sweeping tech and manufacturing bill aimed at curtailing China’s increasing technological influence.
Through the directive unveiled Wednesday, the Pentagon will assess U.S. alliances and partnerships, deterrence, operational concepts, emerging capabilities, future force posture, technology and civilian and military workforce.
“Certainly China’s influence and its global capabilities are important with regard to its military modernization and some of its relationships around the world and we, of course, took those into account but we were not assessing financial or economic policies,” the official said.
When pressed for more details, the official added that the initiatives created by the directive will largely remain classified.
The tension between Beijing and Washington, the world’s two largest economies, soared under the Trump administration.
Biden has previously said that his administration was ready for “extreme competition” with China but that his approach would be different than his predecessor.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
