By Fang Xiaozhi
On January 22, former US Central Command leader Lloyd Austin was confirmed as the US's new defense secretary, the nation's first African chief of the Pentagon.
Previously Austin said in public that if he were to take office as defense secretary, he would make sure China would not obtain military superiority over the US.
The Trump administration followed a tough China policy during its four-year term, seeking absolute military superiority by massively increasing the defense budget, enlarging military forces, developing new weapons and equipment, and creating new combat theories and thoughts. The US also put forth the “Third Offset Strategy” in the attempt to comprehensively offset China’s comparative advantages and consequently cement America’s dominant position for the next 25 years.
Austin's public pledge to contain China’s military advantages is a continuation and application of the Third Offset Strategy. With the continuous enhancement of China's military strength and the losing of China-US strategic balance, the new defense secretary strives to maintain America’s absolute domination by precisely hedging China's relative advantages that the country is obtaining in certain areas.
Meanwhile, he also endeavors to add more chips for the Biden administration in its future game with China, which reflects America’s extreme diffidence in its security and great anxiety over rising China’s possible challenge to its global dominance.
Although Biden differs widely from Trump in the governing philosophy, they both have determined that China is America’s arch adversary. The Biden administration will take precautions and seek the strategic initiative in the future competition with China.
However, unlike Trump's hysteria, the Biden administration will adopt more rational and diversified approaches, believing that the US should actively undertake its responsibilities as a major power and take an active part in international politics and social life. The country may also switch its external strategy from unilateralism to multilateral cooperation.
Biden has already appointed several members of his national security team, in which the key figures like Secretary of State Antony Blinken, national security advisor Jake Sullivan and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin are on the same page regarding US policies, namely giving full play to rules and their allies in diplomatic and military policies while using caution in the deployment of military means.
Austin has been underlining the importance of the so-called strategic patience. He said in an interview of 2018 that allies, alliance and regional partnerships are the legitimate source of support for systematic order and America's reputation and strength as a leader. This view poses a sharp contrast to the stance adopted by the liberal hawks and the Trump administration.
That Biden has appointed Austin as his defense secretary indicates that the incoming president is determined to strengthen regional alliance and partnerships more patiently.
Guided by this philosophy, leveraging on its allies' strengths to curb China while cautiously avoiding any direct military conflict with the country is likely to be the foothold of the Biden administration’s military policy toward Beijing.