In its report, Center for New American Security said: "NDS 2018 was a truly strategic document that shifted the Department of Defense at the highest levels in a new and welcome direction."

"Even though the department has made much progress, the strategy’s implementation has been at best incomplete," the report said.

"NDS 2022 represents an opportunity to lock in this new consensus and take the investment, posture, and alliance management steps necessary for waging strategic competition with China," it said.

In addition, the military challenge to Taiwan has become a focal point for U.S. planners, because it is where the imbalance with the People’s Liberation Army has become the most pressing, the report said.

"The next NDS should view Taiwan as not just a responsibility for U.S. policy, but an opportunity for U.S. strategy in the region. Just as NDS 2022 should make it explicit that China is the priority, it should also elevate Taiwan as a focal point for U.S. defense strategy in the Pacific," the report said.

The report said: "The 2022 NDS must more clearly state how the United States will operate forward, in conditions short of armed conflict, to confront Chinese aggression, deter future Chinese planning, and reestablish a set of norms that cannot be manipulated or undermined by persistent campaigns of low-level aggression."

The think tank said China still acts with impunity in its development of manmade structures and bullying of neighbors in the South China Sea.

"Beijing is also working in cyberspace to undermine U.S. military, economic, and political credibility. This inability to operate with speed and agility in the 'gray zone' is weakening the U.S. strategic position and destabilizing critical alliances and partnerships," it said.