President-elect Donald Trump is moving at record speed to nominate Cabinet officials and select White House staffers, especially in the area of national
President-elect Donald Trump is moving at record speed to nominate Cabinet officials and select White House staffers, especially in the area of national security policy. The world is watching and waiting, especially our allies and adversaries in the Indo-Pacific. The China hawks are back, and that most likely means that the United States will actually (instead of rhetorically) “pivot” to the Indo-Pacific. The Cold War with China is about to intensify.
Let’s begin with Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth, currently a Fox News analyst and a decorated combat veteran of the Afghan and Iraq wars. Hegseth has stated that China is building an army that is specifically dedicated to defeating the U.S. Hegseth believes that America’s armed forces need to be more lethal, less concerned with “diversity, equity and inclusion,” and focused on winning wars. China, he believes, wants to take over Taiwan and gain control over its semiconductor industry. China’s leaders, he recently remarked, “have a full-spectrum long-term view of not just regional but global domination.” Hegseth will likely advocate for shifting resources from the Ukraine war to bolstering our ability to deter and if necessary defeat China in the western Pacific.
Trump’s pick for national security adviser, Florida Rep. Mike Waltz, also a retired army combat veteran, says that China is an “existential threat,” and has called for the U.S. to arm Taiwan “now before its too late.” Like Trump, Waltz has also urged Taiwan’s leaders to provide more for their own defense. Waltz values America’s alliances with Japan and South Korea, and sees India as a potential valuable ally against China.
