Biden announces creation of Pentagon task force on China

US President Joe Biden announced on 10 February the formation of a ‘China Task Force’ within the US Department of Defense (DoD) to provide “a baseline assessment of department policies, programmes, and processes in regard to the challenge China poses”.

The 15-member task force, which will have four months to develop recommendations for senior US defence leaders, will be led by Ely Ratner, a special assistant to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Its members will come from a wide swathe of the department and include the Office of the Secretary of Defense staff, the Joint Staff, the services, the combatant commands, and representatives from the intelligence community, according to a DoD statement.

US defence officials called the task force a “sprint effort” that will examine “high-priority topics including strategy, operational concepts, technology and force structure, force posture, and force management and intelligence”. It will also look at US alliances and partnerships and their impact on Sino-American relations and DoD relations with China.

Moreover, the task force will co-ordinate with interagency partners “to ensure the defence response is aligned with the whole-of-government approach toward China that the president wants”, said the DoD.