For the first time in three years, the US published a National Security Strategy, highlighting that it does not support changes to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and calls on allies to increase defense spending and cooperation. TaiwanPlus spoke to Globsec Associate Fellow Bryce C. Barros about what that could mean for US policy in Asia.
00:00The U.S. has released its latest national security strategy, saying deterring a conflict
00:05over Taiwan is a priority.
00:08It says preserving the U.S.' military superiority is needed to achieve that.
00:12The document noted increased focus on Taiwan for its critical role in semiconductors.
00:17It also says that the U.S. does not support unilateral changes to the cross-strait status
00:22quo.
00:23Instead, it calls for working with regional allies to ensure that the U.S. can always
00:28defend Taiwan.
00:29It's the first national security strategy document released since 2022.
00:35For more on what the new strategy could mean for U.S. engagement in the region, our reporter
00:39Larry Isiano spoke to Bryce Barros, an associate fellow at the think tank GlobSec.
00:46What are your high-level thoughts on the new national security strategy?
00:48Do you think that this represents some sort of shift in U.S. policy towards Asia and the
00:52Indo-Pacific region?
00:54Yes.
00:55I do think it's a bit of a high-level shift on U.S. policy in Asia broadly.
01:01I think specifically where the national security strategy mentions Taiwan, specifically under
01:08the deterring military threats subsection, it really doesn't focus on ways that it partners
01:14with Taiwan in a military way other than wanting to ensure that Taiwan is important because of
01:22its semiconductor production, but also given its own geography across the so-called first
01:29island chain.
01:30So I think that that's actually pretty significant in itself to mention that.
01:33I do think that it does allow for a lot of ambiguity about what U.S. actions would be for that other
01:38than trying to deny China's ability to want to seize Taiwan or try to get a foothold on any of the islands
01:49in the first island chain.
01:50So the way to sort of do that is to keep an eye on what's happening going forward related to bilateral exercises
01:57or multilateral exercises here in the Indo-Pacific.
02:01So if you continue to see those exercises and interactions sort of maintain their bounds and ramp up,
02:08I think that's a lot more telling than some of the more ambiguous language that you have in the actual
02:13national security strategy unto itself.
02:16A few months ago, in the lead up to APEC, there was some concern that Taiwan could be seen as some sort of
02:21political bargaining chip between Trump and China while he sought out some sort of trade deal.
02:25Do you think the strategy assuages those concerns or addresses those concerns?
02:29I don't know if the strategy necessarily gets into that at all, right?
02:33And there's been a lot of omission within the strategy that talks about the nuts and bolts of how it will work with Taiwan.
02:40But I do think that some of the things that you're starting to see so far show that the Trump administration
02:45is not necessarily viewing Taiwan or at least using it as a bargain chip.
02:50How does this national security strategy differ from previous ones?
02:53This is the first in three years and the first in President Trump's second term.
02:57I think the biggest difference.
02:59So if you're looking at this national security strategy versus ones that you've seen for previous like the Biden administration,
03:07for example, where the Biden administration put a really strong advocacy on democracy, right?
03:13There's not a whole lot of mention of human rights, democracy and whatnot in the context of this national security strategy.
03:19And within the context of China, right?
03:22So Hong Kong, Xinjiang, you know, all those other like transnational repression.
03:28So in that sense, at least on the Indo-Pacific policy related to China, it is a bit of a departure.
03:34However, I do think that there is a decent amount of stuff that provides a nod to wanting to work with allies and partners,
03:43which issues as the administration shows and to speak up about done actions against like, for example, sanctions or military exercises or things along those lines.
03:52I think that that's a key thing to sort of keep an eye out for when thinking about the actual implementation of this national security strategy versus previous ones.
04:01That was Bryce Barros, an associate fellow at Globesec.
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