Why is the US 2025 National Security Strategy so contradictory toward China? On December 4, 2024, the United States released its 2025 National Security Strategy, calling China a "near-peer competitor" for the first time. While this sounds pragmatic, the document reveals three major internal contradictions that expose the Trump administration's strategic dilemmas. The strategy aims to "prevent military confrontation" while simultaneously strengthening military presence around Taiwan and the South China Sea. It acknowledges China as a "near-peer" yet consistently labels Chinese economic practices as "predatory" and "unfair." Perhaps most revealing, the US proposes "mutually advantageous" relations with China while demanding allies decouple from Chinese supply chains and reorganize their economies to counter China.

Professor Wang Xiangsui, Deputy Secretary-General of the CITIC Foundation for Reform and Development Studies, reveals the core issue behind these contradictions: America's fundamental dilemma of "limited strength, excessive goals." The strategy reflects not genuine retrenchment but a utilitarian containment approach designed to weaken China's strategic development while maintaining economic benefits from trade.

This video explores how China transcends Trump's "transactional" framework through strategic resolve, consolidated hard power, and long-term wisdom.