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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