While the Trump administration took on China and the Biden administration continued many of those policies, including investments in Pacific allies to deter Chinese abuses, efforts are falling woefully short.

“Strategic ambiguity” does not accurately describe the US policy on Taiwan that has been executed by successive Republican and Democratic administrations over the past 40-some years. A better description would be “strategic tacitness.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping has revived a decades-old term to refer to a key goal that China is now eager to achieve: “common prosperity.”

The Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this month unveiled plans for a $740-billion defense-spending bill for fiscal year 2022. That’s nearly three-quarters of a trillion dollars—in long form: $740,000,000,000. That looks like a lot of money. But looks can be deceiving.

What the Free World built from the rubble of World War II isn’t perfect. But it’s unquestionably better than the alternative being pushed by Xi and Putin—and it’s definitely worth defending.

Much of the world is now awakened to the PRC’s ambitions and keenly aware of its claws. America and its partners are coming to the stark realization that a renewed commitment to deterrence is the only way to ensure the twenty-first century isn’t made in the PRC.

The People’s Republic of China not only has the intent to build a new world order, but it also has the resources and capabilities to do so—which helps explain why those who designed and uphold the existing world order are answering China’s challenge.

If China is indeed the future, if China is primed to “rule the world,” if China remakes the international order in its image, it won’t be pretty.

President Biden’s decision to fully extend the treaty without condition was mostly met with a figurative sigh of relief from arms control advocates and those who seek a world “free of nuclear weapons.” But Americans should be sober-minded about the real impact of the treaty, and not be lulled into believing New START, or any one treaty, will moderate US adversaries or better position the United States in our competition with either Russia or China.