US must revamp post-WWII order in Indo-Pacific to curb China ambitions, report says

January 29, 2020

Stars and Stripes

The U.S. and its allies must establish new rules, norms and institutions in the Indo-Pacific region as a means of blunting China’s growing military and economic might there, recommends a congressionally mandated report released Tuesday.

The report, “Rising to the China Challenge: Renewing American Competitiveness in the Indo-Pacific,” authored by the think tank Center for New American Security, was a requirement in the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act to assess how best to implement the Pentagon’s defense strategy in the Indo-Pacific.

The 2017 National Security Strategy and 2018 National Defense Strategy identified so-called “great-power” competition as the new driving force behind the Defense Department’s decisions and force structuring rather than counterterrorism. The competition between the United States and China is of premier importance.

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