The book, "An America First Approach to U.S. National Security," urges the country to decouple from China, "starting with the most sensitive sectors and working down," to ensure Chinese Communist Party policies are "largely irrelevant to American life."
It was written by former Trump advisers including Robert Lighthizer, who served as U.S. trade representative; Rep. Michael Waltz, a Florida Republican and former Green Beret; and Fred Fleitz, who was a chief of staff to Trump's National Security Council. All of them are rumored by Republican insiders to be chosen for high-ranking positions should Trump win the presidential election in November.
The group, America First Policy Institute, was formed in 2021 as a think tank to promote Trump's policies. AFPI said it does not speak for the Trump campaign, but the book's authors told Nikkei Asia they have been in frequent contact with the former president.
"As serious as the war in Ukraine is, it is not the top national security threat to our country. That threat is China," the authors wrote in the book.
A prolonged war in Ukraine risks deepening the alliance among Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, which the nonprofit calls a new "anti-American axis."
Fleitz, the book's editor, wrote that he hopes the book will serve not just as a guide for a new U.S. administration in 2025 but also "help lay a foundation for American foreign policy for many years to come."
The America First institute's stance on Russia's war against Ukraine represents one of its major differences from President Joe Biden's administration.
"Under an America First administration, the United States must focus its military power on deterring the peer threat of China," using the full spectrum of political, economic and military power, Waltz wrote in a chapter.
The book claims that decades of U.S. efforts to transform China into a responsible partner on the global stage were a "self-destructive policy." American investment in China has provided liquidity to Beijing's high-tech projects, which are used to strengthen military-civil fusion, fortifying the People's Liberation Army, the authors said.
Future China policy should be guided by the principle of "reciprocity," they said. The Chinese Communist Party and its affiliates should not have access to land, infrastructure, intellectual property, educational opportunities, social media applications "and many other facets of civil society in the U.S. beyond that which Americans have access to in China," the book said.
AFPI is working with U.S. states to enact laws that ban foreign ownership -- especially Chinese ownership -- of agricultural land. Such laws have been enacted in states like Arizona, Florida, Mississippi, Montana, North and South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia and Utah.
The book called for sustaining all tariffs imposed on China during the Trump administration and urged the U.S. to develop supply chains that "rely solely on American workers, our allies, or our friendly neighbors in the Americas." They gave credit to the Biden administration for restricting U.S. investment into sensitive Chinese sectors, such as artificial intelligence, but urged for further measures to sever American investment ties with entities related to the Chinese Communist Party.
The book is expected to be widely read among foreign embassies in Washington, eager to glimpse what a potential second Trump administration may look like.
Whether Trump would send American troops to defend Taiwan -- which is not a treaty ally -- from a Chinese invasion has been widely discussed in the U.S. capital. But the book is unequivocal, noting, "the island must be defended."
Preserving Taiwan's security fits both the economic and national security interests of the U.S., the authors said.
But the authors insisted that the U.S. demand more from allies.
"Allied countries can dramatically reduce the strategic burden on the United States if they are allowed to contribute in their own way," the book said.
The U.S.-Japan alliance "sets the standard" for successful America First foreign policy, the authors wrote, commending Tokyo's decision to increase defense spending and to acquire stand-off missiles.
Regarding the Quad, an informal four-way partnership among the U.S., Japan, India and Australia, the authors encouraged a "closer military integration" to counter China's rise.