WASHINGTON — America's military engagement in Iran is forcing the redeployment of critical defense assets away from the Asia-Pacific region, undermining strategic deterrence against China just as President Donald Trump prepares for a crucial summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping next month. The diversion raises concerns about America's ability to maintain military overmatch in the Taiwan Strait and protect vital economic interests, including access to advanced semiconductor manufacturing.
The U.S. has pulled military assets from the Asia-Pacific as it aims to eliminate the threat posed by Iran's nuclear and missile programs. The demands of the Iran war also caused President Donald Trump to delay by several weeks his highly anticipated trip to China, deepening worries that the U.S. is once again getting distracted at the cost of its strategic interests in Asia, where Beijing seeks to unseat the U.S. as the regional leader.
Strategic Costs Mount
Zack Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who studies the U.S. strategy in Asia, said the longer the conflict goes on, the more it will pull resources and focus away from Asia, and that future arms sales to the region also will be negatively affected. Cooper said, "The United States has expended substantial numbers of munitions in the Middle East and will have to keep an increased force presence there, some of which has been redirected from Asia." He added, "Meanwhile, Xi Jinping's wisdom in preparing a 'war time' economy by stockpiling and adding alternate energy sources has shown itself to be beneficial."
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, recently led a bipartisan group of senators to Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, where they heard concerns about the impact of the war on energy costs and about the departure of U.S. military assets, including missile defense systems from South Korea and a rapid-response Marine unit from Japan. Shaheen said she sought to reassure them of the U.S. commitment to deterring conflicts in Asia and shoring up regional stability. "Failure is not an option," Shaheen told The Associated Press after returning from Asia. "We know China has already said they intend to take Taiwan by force if they need to, and they're on an expedited time schedule. And we also know that what happened in Europe, in the war in Ukraine, in the Middle East is affecting those calculations."
Kurt Campbell, who served as deputy secretary of state in the Biden administration, said he is worried that the military capabilities the U.S. had patiently accumulated in the Indo-Pacific region might not return in full even after the Iran war ends. Shaheen said the U.S. defense industry will struggle to meet the demand to replenish the weapons stockpile. "We're working on a number of strategies to improve that, but at this point, timelines for weapons delivery are slipping," she said.
Defenders of Sequential Approach
Others defend the president's approach, arguing that the forceful steps he is taking elsewhere, including in Venezuela and Iran, serve to counter China globally. Matt Pottinger, who served as a deputy national security adviser in the first Trump administration, said in a recent podcast, "Beijing is the chief sponsor for the adversaries that President Trump is dealing with sequentially, and it's wise to do this sequentially." NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte also said conflicts may not be confined to a single theater, saying Thursday at the Ronald Reagan Institute in Washington, "Most likely it will not be limited, something in the Indo-Pacific to the Indo-Pacific. It will be a multi-theater issue."
Fifteen Years After the Pivot
In 2011, President Barack Obama declared it was time for America to leave behind the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and "pivot" to Asia to counter the rise of China. Fifteen years later, the U.S. finds itself still at war in the Middle East. Obama's strategic rebalance to Asia reflected his understanding that the U.S. must be a player in the Pacific to harness the region's growth and ensure continued U.S. leadership in the face of China's rising influence. In a speech to the Australian Parliament, Obama said, "After a decade in which we fought two wars that cost us dearly, in blood and treasure, the United States is turning our attention to the vast potential of the Asia-Pacific region. So make no mistake, the tide of war is receding, and America is looking ahead to the future that we must build."
But the strategy was set back when a proposed trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership with key U.S. regional partners failed to get through the U.S. Senate. After Trump first took office in 2017, he withdrew the U.S. from the partnership and launched a tariff war with China. His Democratic successor, Joe Biden, kept Trump's tariffs on China and tightened export controls on advanced technology, while strengthening regional alliances to counter China.
By the time Trump rolled out his national security strategy in late 2025, the U.S. strategy in Asia had been narrowed to military deterrence in the Taiwan Strait and the First Island Chain, a string of U.S.-aligned islands off China's coast that restrict its access to the Western Pacific. The national security document says it is in the economic interest of the U.S. to secure access to advanced chips, which are sourced primarily from Taiwan and are needed to power everything from computers to missiles, and to protect shipping lanes in the South China Sea. "Hence deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority," the document says. "We will build a military capable of denying aggression anywhere in the First Island Chain." The Middle East, it says, should be getting less attention: "As this administration rescinds or eases restrictive energy policies and American energy production ramps up, America's historic reason for focusing on the Middle East will recede." Then came the Iran war.
Danny Russel, a distinguished fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said, "This is precisely the wrong time for the United States to turn away and be sucked into another intractable Middle East conflict." He added, "Rebalancing to Asia is highly relevant to America's national interests, but it has been undercut by many bad decisions." Shaheen said she is encouraged that Taiwan, Japan and South Korea are stepping up their own defense.
Why This Matters:
The diversion of military assets from Asia to support Iran operations directly contradicts America's stated strategic priority of maintaining deterrence in the Taiwan Strait and First Island Chain. With China accelerating its timeline for potential action against Taiwan and stockpiling resources for a wartime economy, the temporary withdrawal of missile defense systems and rapid-response units creates a window of vulnerability. The economic stakes are substantial: Taiwan produces the advanced semiconductors essential to American technology and defense industries, while South China Sea shipping lanes carry trillions in annual trade. Delays in weapons delivery timelines further compound the challenge of maintaining military overmatch against a peer competitor that is not simultaneously engaged in Middle Eastern conflicts. The situation tests whether regional allies can sufficiently bolster their own capabilities while America addresses threats on multiple fronts.