Image by Winston Chen.

The Trump administration’s National Security Strategy paper, released this month, is filled with nasty, nativist language and half-truths straight out of the Project 2025 playbook. But amidst the bluster about historic success in strengthening national security and claims about resolving wars is a stark reminder of the direction US foreign policy is taking, which looks to be a world divided into American, Chinese, and Russian spheres of influence.

That would explain why Latin America receives so much more attention in the NSS paper than China or Russia. The theme of strategic competition with those two countries that was emphasized in Trump’s first national security overview has vanished. Now, China is viewed mainly as an economic rival. That is surely welcome news in Beijing.

Competing with China

The NSS paper, like Project 2025, decries previous Democratic efforts to bring China into a “rules-based” international system. The NSS offers an alternative that really isn’t: to “rebalance America’s economic relationship with China, prioritizing reciprocity and fairness to restore American economic independence.” In other words, seek what previous administrations have sought with China: get it to abide by rules of fair competition.

The paper offers complaints we’ve heard before: China’s “unfair trade policies” such as state subsidies, intellectual property theft, industrial espionage, and “threats against our supply chains that risk U.S. access to critical resources, including minerals and rare earth elements.” To counter China, the NSS says the administration will work with partners such as India (no reference to US tariffs that have undermined that relationship), protect critical infrastructure, invest in “research to preserve and advance our advantage in cutting-edge military and dual-use technology . . . ,” and urge Europe and........

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