I spent last week on the East Coast of the U.S. where every conversation focused on the intensifying competition with China. Yet for all the attention and the rising decibel level there remain far more questions than answers and the struggle to articulate, much less implement, a response continues to bedevil policymakers.
If allies, partners and observers are confused about the U.S. approach to China, that is understandable: The most generous assessment would be, as one expert explained, that the U.S. has “a China policy, but not a plan.”
For sure, all view China as a competitor. This is either a geopolitical struggle between two global powers — China’s preferred framing as it allows Beijing to paint the U.S. as a bad guy, leading others astray — or, in Washington’s favored version, a fight between China and a coalition of like-minded nations.