The U.S. Navy’s long-range plan for warship construction, released last week, is remarkable for all the wrong reasons. Once again, the Biden administration’s lack of threat awareness is on full display. Even as Russia rampages in Ukraine and China rattles sabers in Asia, the administration seeks to underfund the nation’s defenses.

The administration’s cognitive dissonance has given Americans much to worry about, from border insecurity to resurgent terrorist regimes in Iran and Afghanistan. However, it’s Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine that has awakened many to the dangers of the world today and the realization that showing weakness only invites aggression.

That danger is ever-present in East Asia, where Chinese leaders are readying to take over Taiwan this decade. Such a war would put the estimated 80,000 Americans living in Taiwan at risk.

A strong U.S. Navy has kept China’s ambition to conquer Taiwan in check for decades. But President Joe Biden’s shipbuilding plan would leave the United States with the smallest navy in over 100 years, even as China continues the rapid expansion and modernization of its fleet—already the largest in the world. How can Biden expect a smaller U.S. fleet to sustain deterrence through this decade and beyond?

The Navy’s long-range shipbuilding plan admits the need for a stronger fleet: “The new era of strategic competition requires a larger, modernized, capable, globally deployed, forward, and lethal multi-domain Navy.” It then blithely proceeds to go in the exact opposite direction, shrinking the Navy from today’s 297 warships to only 280 by 2027. By contrast, the previous long-range plan would have grown the Navy to 322 warships by 2027.

That date is critical. In March 2021, Admiral Philip Davidson, who as commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command was responsible for prosecuting any war in Asia, testified that China was making every preparation for a military takeover of Taiwan by 2027. The date was later seconded by Davidson’s successor, Admiral John Aquilino, and Mike Pompeo, a former director of the CIA and secretary of state.

So why is the administration not taking the danger seriously?

One reason could be that defense spending is not a top priority for the Biden administration, whose main defense interests seem to be pursuing social equity, reducing carbon emissions, and tracking down phantom extremists in the ranks.