From pages 9, 10, and 18 of the January 2026 document:
PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA (PRC)
By any measure, China is already the second most powerful country in the world—behind only the United States—and the most powerful state relative to us since the 19th century. And while China faces very significant internal economic, demographic, and societal challenges, the fact is that its power is growing. Beijing has already spent vast amounts on the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] in recent years, often at the expense of domestic priorities. Yet China can still afford to spend even more on its military, should it choose to do so—and it has shown that it is able to do so effectively. Indeed, the speed, scale, and quality of China’s historic military buildup speak for themselves, including forces designed for operations in the Western Pacific as well as those capable of reaching targets much farther away.
This matters for America’s interests because, as the NSS recognizes, the Indo-Pacific will soon make up more than half of the global economy. The American people’s security, freedom, and prosperity are therefore directly linked to our ability to trade and engage from a position of strength in the Indo-Pacific. Were China—or anyone else, for that matter—to dominate this broad and crucial region, it would be able to effectively veto Americans’ access to the world’s economic center of gravity, with enduring implications for our nation’s economic prospects, including our ability to reindustrialize.
That is why the NSS directs DoW to maintain a favorable balance of military power in the IndoPacific. Not for purposes of dominating, humiliating, or strangling China. To the contrary, our goal is far more scoped and reasonable than that: It is simply to ensure that neither China nor anyone else can dominate us or our allies. This does not require regime change or some other existential struggle. Rather, a decent peace, on terms favorable to Americans but that China can also accept and live under, is possible. That is the wise premise of President Trump’s visionary and realistic approach to diplomacy with Beijing. At the same time, the Department’s efforts will provide the undergirding strength for this approach….
LINE OF EFFORT 2: DETER CHINA IN THE INDO-PACIFIC THROUGH STRENGTH, NOT CONFRONTATION
The Department of War will follow President Trump’s lead in engaging our PLA counterparts through a wider range of formats. As we do so, our focus will be on supporting strategic stability and on deconfliction and de-escalation more broadly. At the same time, President Trump has made clear his desire for a decent peace in the Indo-Pacific, where trade flows openly and fairly, we can all prosper, and our interests are respected. DoW will use these engagements to help communicate that vision and intent to Chinese authorities, while also demonstrating through our behavior our own sincere desire to achieve and sustain such a peaceful and prosperous future.
We will not lose sight, however, of President Trump’s most important direction for the Department—peace through strength. Recognizing this, it is our essential responsibility at DoW to ensure that President Trump is always able to negotiate from a position of strength in order to sustain peace in the Indo-Pacific. To that end, as the NSS directs, we will build, posture, and sustain a strong denial defense along the FIC. We will also work closely with our allies and partners in the region to incentivize and enable them to do more for our collective defense, especially in ways that are relevant to an effective denial defense. Through these efforts, we will make clear that any attempt at aggression against U.S. interests will fail and is therefore not worth attempting in the first place. That is the essence of deterrence by denial.
In this manner, DoW will provide the military strength for President Trump’s visionary and realistic diplomacy, thereby setting conditions for a balance of power in the Indo-Pacific that allows all of us—the United States, China, and others in the region—to enjoy a decent peace. At the same time, in the process of erecting a strong denial defense along the FIC, DoW will ensure that the Joint Force always has the ability to conduct devastating strikes and operations against targets anywhere in the world, including directly from the U.S. Homeland, thereby providing the President with second-to-none operational flexibility and agility.
