China is the most consequential geopolitical challenge: Sullivan

China represents America’s most consequential geopolitical challenge to the United States, said National Security Advisor (NSA) Jake Sullivan on Wednesday as the Biden administration released a key policy document on national security. “Next, we recognise that in the geopolitical space, the PRC represents America’s most consequential geopolitical challenge. 

“And while that will play out in the Indo-Pacific to a significant extent, there are global dimensions to the challenge as well,” Sullivan said during an on-the-record press call previewing the Biden-Harris administration’s national security strategy. 

The National Security Strategy states that both China and Russia, who announced a “no-limits partnership” this year, are increasingly aligned with each other, but the challenges they pose are distinct. 

However, Sullivan’s security strategy also makes clear that the US avoids seeing the world solely through the prism of strategic competition and intends not to try to divide the world into rigid blocks. 

“We are not seeking to have competition tip over into confrontation or a new Cold War. And we are not engaging each country as simply a proxy battleground. 

“We’re going to engage countries on their own terms and pursue an affirmative agenda to advance common interests and to promote stability and prosperity,” he said. 

The policy document contends that competition with China is most pronounced in the Indo-Pacific, but it is also increasingly global.

“Around the world, the contest to write the rules of the road and shape the relationships that govern global affairs is playing out in every region and across economics, technology, diplomacy, development, security, and global governance,” it adds.

The US Security Strategy highlighted that the next ten years will be a decisive decade of competition with China.

“We stand now at the inflection point, where the choices we make and the priorities we pursue today will set us on a course that determines our competitive position long into the future,” the document says.