China has denounced the United States government for what it calls its Cold War and zero-sum mentality in its latest national defence strategy, which named China and Russia as “revisionist powers” that “seek to create a world consistent with their authoritarian models”..
China has denounced the United States government for what it calls its Cold War and zero-sum mentality in its latest national defence strategy, which named China and Russia as “revisionist powers” that “seek to create a world consistent with their authoritarian models”.
In presenting the new strategy, Defence Secretary James Mattis said: “We will continue to prosecute the campaign against terrorists that we are engaged in today, but great power competition, not terrorism, is now the primary focus of US national security.”
The 2018 US National Defence Strategy (NDS) released on Friday said China and Russia sought to shape the world in their authoritarian image and erode American influence, language similar to the US National Security Strategy put out last month.
China is also referred to as “a strategic competitor using predatory economics to intimidate its neighbours while militarising features in the South China Sea”, a characterisation that drew a backlash from Chinese officials.
A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington told Xinhua news agency that China seeks global partnerships rather than global hegemony, and used a Chinese phrase that meant one’s mentality determines how one sees the world.
“Peace and development are the themes of this era, and are also the shared aspirations of mankind,” the spokesman told reporters on Friday evening. “However, if some people look at the world through a Cold War, zero-sum game mindset, then they are destined to see only conflict and confrontation.”
Mr Mattis said the US is simply recognising reality, and that “this is not a strategy of confrontation, but it is strategy that recognises the reality of competition”.
The unclassified version of the NDS said long-term, strategic competition with China and Russia “are the principal priorities for the Department (of Defence), and require both increased and sustained investment, because of the magnitude of the threats they pose to US security and prosperity today, and the potential for those threats to increase in the future”.
