The U.S. military must prepare to confront China and to prevent its communist regime from reshaping the international order in its own image, a new memo from the secretary of defense says.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that communist China seeks to force the international community to acquiescence to its authoritarian demands and must be stopped.

“An increasingly aggressive China is trying to shape the international rules-based system to suit its authoritarian preferences.” Austin said in a March 2 message to the U.S. Armed Forces. “This is a generational challenge, and the Department will rise to meet it.”

“To do so, we must embrace integrated deterrence, which charges us to coordinate our efforts across all war-fighting domains, theaters, and the spectrum of conflict to create new and more complex dilemmas for our adversaries.”

To that end, Austin said that the U.S. military would need to strengthen its posture in the Indo-Pacific, and work with allies to more adequately deter Chinese communist aggression in the South and East China Seas, and against Taiwan.

“We are strengthening our deterrence posture in the Indo-Pacific by developing new concepts and capabilities, deepening our alliances and partnerships, and expanding our activities and operations,” Austin said.

“Implementing our strategy means tackling the pacing challenge from [China] while also confronting the acute threat of Russian aggression and managing the risk of escalation as Putin’s cruel war against Ukraine enters a second year.”

The “threat” posed by China’s communist regime remains ongoing, Austin said, and would continue to define the United States’ strategy for years to come.

As such, he said, U.S. forces would continue to prepare and train to deter the authoritarian power from realizing its ambition of conquering Taiwan or otherwise creating international instability.

“As the threat from [China] evolves, we will provide Taiwan self-defense capabilities consistent with the Taiwan Relations Act,” Austin said.

“Our team is making major investments in the nuclear triad, space, cyberspace, long-range fires, and next-generation capabilities in fighter aircraft and undersea warfare, while also accelerating Joint All Domain Command and Control.”