Softer rhetoric on China, but an intensified drive for economic and technological supremacy. A renewed Monroe Doctrine and a Western Hemisphere that tops America national priorities—is the 2025 U.S. National Security Strategy a real shift in American foreign policy, or just old wine in new bottles? In this episode, we explore how America’s new National Security Strategy affects China-U.S. relations and what it means for Global South countries and the broader world order. Host Xu Yawen is joined by Zhao Hai, Director of International Political Studies at the National Institute for Global Strategy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Wang Haolan, Research Assistant at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis; Clifford Kiracofe, Washington-based author and former Senior Professional Staff Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations; and George Tzogopoulos, Director of EU-China Programmes and Senior Research Fellow at the European Institute of Nice.