Based on an article by Yoshihisa Komori in the Sankei Shimbun, this chapter introduces the core of the Trump administration’s official document, “United States Strategic Approach to the People’s Republic of China.” It explains how the United States identified China as a threat to the U.S.-led international order in the fields of economics, values, and security, and declared a comprehensive policy of deterrence in cooperation with its allies.

June 16, 2020

The U.S. government has pledged to confront and deter China’s words and deeds that violate international norms and democratic principles in every domestic and external field.

The following is from an article by Yoshihisa Komori, guest correspondent stationed in Washington, published in today’s Sankei Shimbun under the title, “U.S. China Policy Based on ‘Peace Through Strength.’”
Emphasis in the text and the notes following the asterisks are mine.
In addition to the massive spread of the novel coronavirus in the United States, the one that would most welcome the expansion of protests over racial issues is surely the Chinese regime.
Were not the people controlling the reporting departments of the Asahi Shimbun and NHK also welcoming it?
Chinese state-run media such as the People’s Daily and the Global Times have recently been filled with articles, oozing with delight, to the effect that “the Trump administration’s suppression of its own citizens exposes the hypocrisy of its criticism of China over Hong Kong!”
Then how will this current situation affect U.S. policy toward China?
Will the firm posture of deterrence against China up to now waver?
The key to answering this question is the policy document that the Trump administration sent to Congress at the end of May.
It was an official document entitled “United States Strategic Approach to the People’s Republic of China.”
Its content viewed China as a threat equivalent to an enemy that seeks to fundamentally undermine the U.S.-led international order in the three fields of economics, values, and security, and it was a declaration of full-scale confrontation with China aimed at deterrence.
The document, which asks both houses of Congress for budgetary measures for that full-scale confrontation, can be described as the strongest statement of China policy yet issued by the Trump administration.
The core of that comprehensive policy was the following four summarized “implementation measures.”

1. Protect the American people, homeland, and way of life.
   U.S. government agencies will crack down on economic espionage, public-opinion operations, and political plots by China, strictly monitor Chinese diplomats and students in the United States, and regard personnel of Chinese state-run media as agents.
   They will prevent Chinese influence operations against American research institutions and universities, intervention in the communications field, and theft of advanced technology, and, in cooperation with allied countries, prevent intelligence activities and cyberattacks from China.
2. Protect American prosperity.
   They will end unfair economic practices such as China’s theft of intellectual property, and protect the interests of American industry, workers, and consumers.
   They will also eliminate China’s unfair challenges in such fields as fifth-generation, or 5G, mobile communications systems and artificial intelligence, or AI.
   In coordination with Japan and Europe, they will eliminate practices such as Chinese state-owned and state-operated enterprises distorting market principles, improper government subsidies, and the forced transfer of technology from foreign companies.
3. Preserve peace through American strength.
   Against China’s massive military buildup, the United States will maintain deterrence by strengthening both nuclear and conventional forces.
   It will make China reduce the intermediate-range missiles that it possesses on the world’s largest scale.
   It will restrain China’s military expansion in space and cyberspace.
   In the Indo-Pacific, it will cooperate with Japan to block China’s military hegemony, and it will continue maximum military support for Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities in preparation for a contingency.
4. Expand American influence.
   Through international cooperation, the United States will restrain China’s dictatorial rule, suppression of speech, corruption, predatory economic practices, and prohibition of ethnic and religious diversity, and expand influence based on American values.
   It will support the protection of basic human rights for Uyghurs, Tibetans, Buddhists, Christians, and Falun Gong, the qigong group.
   It gives particular importance to the freedom and rights of Hong Kong residents, and also demands that China strictly observe the one country, two systems framework that it pledged internationally.
   As described above, the U.S. government has pledged to confront and deter China’s words and deeds that violate international norms and democratic principles in every domestic and external field.
   At the foundation of this was displayed the posture of “peace through strength,” based on the Trump administration’s military buildup on the largest scale in history.
   Moreover, the Trump administration repeatedly emphasized confrontation with China in unity with allied nations such as Japan.
   In that posture, there seems to be no doubt at all about whether Japan will stand with the United States or with China.