Team Biden: Only China other than US can reshape world

 China is listed as the country's primary rival by the Biden administration, while Russia is still a threat that needs to be contained in a new defense policy that also labels inflation as a danger to international security.

The US is in "the early years of a pivotal decade" in which "the terms of our battle with the People's Republic of China will be defined," according to Jake Sullivan, national security adviser to President Joe Biden.

Following the long-delayed release of the administration's National Security Strategy, he stated at a Georgetown University event that "the PRC's assertiveness at home and abroad is advancing an illiberal vision across economic, political, security, and technological realms — in competition with the West."

The congressionally required document, which offers a window into the White House's thinking on foreign policy and national security concerns, underwent a significant revision in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

Though it should have, Sullivan added, "This conflict has loomed large in the creation of the strategy, but we do not believe it has blotted out the sun."

Despite being "increasingly united," China and Russia are said to provide different difficulties in the new 48-page public document.

China is referred to as the US's sole rival, "with both the will to remake the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to achieve it," in the report. It is said that controlling Russia will need "continuing a yet deeply hazardous" army.

Compared to the little more than 300 days it took the team of former President Donald Trump, Biden officials revealed their plan more than 600 days into his term. China and Russia were presented in the Trump manifesto as equal dangers.

In relation to those nations, the strategy predicts that by the 2030s, the US would have to deter two significant nuclear powers for the first time. The US nuclear force is being modernized, and "our extended deterrence commitments to our partners are strengthened," according to the statement, "to guarantee our nuclear deterrent remains responsive to the dangers we confront."

The Biden administration is attempting to reaffirm its position that it is "looking for competition but not war — and we're not looking for a new Cold War" with regard to China.

Less than a month before the midterm elections that will determine whether Biden's party keeps control of the House and Senate, the memo also lists inflation, which is the Democrats' largest political liability, as one of the threats to global security. One of the cross-border problems that "people all across the world are striving to cope with" is listed as inflation.

Democrats chances in the midterm elections have been hampered by stubbornly high inflation. The most recent inflation data, which will be released by the Department of Labor on Thursday before Election Day, will be updated. The lowest forecast since February is an 8.1% annual rate, according to economists polled by Bloomberg.

In addition, the Federal Reserve is prepared to announce its fourth consecutive 75-basis-point increase when it meets early next month, just days before elections. Rate increases by the central bank have increased worries about a recession. In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Biden stated that while a US recession is possible, any such slowdown would be "extremely modest" and that the US economy is strong enough to withstand any turbulence.

Climate change is one of the other cross-border challenges mentioned. Even as those difficulties' intensity rises, "the window of opportunity to deal with shared challenges like climate change will narrow substantially," said Sullivan.

The new approach hasn't addressed one long-standing issue: The US Trade Representative will continue its review of Trump's Section 301 tariffs on imports from China, Sullivan told reporters earlier on Wednesday. The inquiry, according to him, "will yield results and recommendations to the President about a course of action."