President Donald Trump has set out a new United States national security strategy that seeks to prevent conflict with China over Taiwan and the South China Sea by reinforcing US military power and pressing Asian allies to increase defence spending.
The 29-page National Security Strategy (NSS), released in Washington on Friday and dated November, offers the most detailed statement yet of the administration’s approach to one of the most sensitive faultlines in global politics. It appears against a backdrop of stepped-up Chinese naval activity around Taiwan and Japan, including what US officials describe as Beijing’s largest recent maritime show of force in East Asian waters.
The document states that “deterring a conflict over Taiwan” is a priority and says Washington’s preferred approach is to maintain what it calls “military overmatch” – a clear edge in capability – over potential Chinese forces in the region. It pledges to “build a military capable of denying aggression anywhere” along the chain of islands that runs from Japan through the Philippines towards South-East Asia, while emphasising that the United States “cannot, and should not have to, do this alone”.
Allies such as Japan and South Korea are urged to “step up and spend – and more importantly do – much more for collective defence”. The administration has already been pressing both governments to accelerate increases in their defence budgets and expand their roles in regional security planning.
The language on Taiwan marks a notable shift from Trump’s first-term national security strategy, published in 2017, which echoed established diplomatic formulas and referred to the island only briefly. The updated document mentions Taiwan eight times across several paragraphs and concludes that there is “rightly” intense focus on the territory, citing its location on key sea lanes and its dominance in advanced semiconductor manufacturing.
China regards Taiwan as part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to bring the island under its control. It also claims almost the entire South China Sea, in disputes that involve several smaller neighbours. The United States, like most countries, does not maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taipei, but is bound by domestic law to provide it with the means to defend itself and is widely seen as Taiwan’s most important security partner.
The NSS links US concerns directly to Taiwan’s role in the global economy. It notes that a substantial share of world trade passes through nearby waters and highlights Taiwan’s position at the centre of semiconductor supply chains, which are crucial to everything from smartphones to military systems. The document argues that instability, or a change in control of surrounding sea lanes, would have significant consequences for global commerce and technology.
In practical terms, the strategy commits Washington and its allies to denying “any attempt to seize Taiwan” or any measures that would “make defending that island impossible”. It also states that the United States will work to prevent any “potentially hostile power” from closing sea lanes or imposing restrictions on shipping in the region, something that would require a stronger US and allied naval presence.
The document sits alongside a broader redefinition of US global posture under Trump. A separate strand of the strategy calls for European members of NATO to take over a larger share of conventional defence tasks, while the United States concentrates a greater proportion of its assets and attention on the Indo-Pacific theatre.
Trump has generally avoided spelling out how he would respond if tensions over Taiwan escalated into open conflict, in contrast to his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, who repeatedly stated during his 2021-2025 term that the United States would defend Taiwan if it were attacked. At the same time, Trump has sought to preserve a working relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping and plans to travel to Beijing in April for talks expected to focus on extending the current truce in their trade dispute.
Regional diplomacy has become more complex. In Tokyo, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi recently told Japan’s parliament that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan that threatened Japanese security could justify a military response, drawing criticism from Beijing. According to earlier reporting, Trump asked Takaichi in private not to escalate the dispute, even as his administration pressed Japan to increase defence spending.
At the same time, Washington has taken steps that Taipei views as signs of continued support. Trump signed legislation requiring regular reviews of how US officials engage with Taiwan’s authorities, and his administration has approved the sale of fighter jet and other aircraft parts to Taiwan worth around $330 million.
The strategy document frames these moves as part of an effort to deter conflict rather than to change the status quo. It presents the military build-up as aimed at convincing Beijing that any attempt to use force around Taiwan or the South China Sea would be too costly and too uncertain to contemplate, while placing a greater share of the financial and operational burden on US allies in Asia and, in parallel, on partners in Europe.
