What Trump's Declassified Asia Strategy May Mean For U.S.-China Relations Under Biden

Eight days before the Trump administration departed, it declassified a key document that it said "provided overarching strategic guidance" to its approach toward Asia, a region it dubbed the Indo-Pacific.

The 10-page, lightly redacted report, in use across the government since 2018, seeks to explain the challenges the U.S. faces from a rising and more assertive China, spells out vital U.S. interests in the region and lays out a plan for both mobilizing and helping key allies in achieving U.S. aims.

The document states that the U.S should maintain "diplomatic, military and economic preeminence" in the region while "preventing China from establishing new, illiberal spheres of influence." It also envisions a Korean peninsula "free of nuclear, chemical, cyber and biological weapons," and expresses commitment to "accelerate India's rise" so that the two countries can "cooperate" to "preserve maritime security and counter Chinese influence."