CFR Launches Ambitious New China Strategy Initiative

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has launched the China Strategy Initiative, an ambitious, cross-cutting new endeavor on U.S. strategy toward the People’s Republic of China. The initiative will answer the questions that go to the heart of U.S. China strategy. It will launch new programs that undertake fresh analysis, provide granular policy recommendations, and convene experts from around the world.

“The competition between the United States and the People’s Republic of China is unlike any the United States has ever faced before. It cuts across most regions of the world and spans multiple sectors, including economic, strategic, political, and technology arenas,” said CFR President Michael Froman. “Through this new initiative, CFR will convene stakeholders from across the country and around the world to grapple with the challenge of devising U.S. strategy toward China.”

Throughout its more than 100-year history, CFR has convened Americans across geographies, industries, and political parties to reckon with the national security challenges of the moment. This time is no different.

The China Strategy Initiative, led by C.V. Starr Senior Fellow for Asia Studies and Director of the China Strategy Initiative Rush Doshi, aims to answer four foundational questions central to any U.S. China strategy:

• What does China think? CFR is launching an Open-Source Observatory to acquire, digitize, and translate vast quantities of Chinese-language material and make it publicly available.

• What does China do? CFR’s new project—China 360°—will pull expertise from across CFR to understand China’s global activities and how other countries respond to them.

• How should the United States compete? CFR is standing up a China Policy Accelerator to produce actionable policy recommendations on what the United States should do to improve its competitive position not just abroad, but at home too. From policy on the defense industrial base and critical infrastructure to industrial policy and defense innovation.

• How should we manage competition? CFR’s new Global China Forum will launch conversations with experts from the United States, China, and countries around the world on managing competition, working together, and avoiding war.

The China Strategy Initiative will deepen research in key areas too: from developments inside China and Taiwan to defense, economics, technology, geopolitics, diplomacy, and transnational challenges such as climate change.

“With this cross-cutting new initiative, CFR will draw on the expertise of its fellows, the experience of its membership, and its relationships with key stakeholders to answer the hard questions and pull together an enduring U.S. competitive strategy,” said Doshi.

To learn more about the initiative, visit cfr.org/china.

The launch event brings senior U.S. officials and prominent American strategists together to explore U.S. policy toward China and the Indo-Pacific, debate U.S. China strategy, and consider the implications of artificial intelligence on national security. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell will give a keynote address on sustaining U.S. strategy in the Indo-Pacific. A panel discussion featuring Elbridge Colby, Bonny Lin, Matthew Pottinger, and Stephen Wertheim will debate the fundamental questions behind U.S. China strategy. Finally, a fireside chat with National Security Council (NSC) Coordinator for Intelligence and Defense Policy Maher Bitar and Senior Director for Technology and National Security Tarun Chhabra will take up AI, national security, and China policy.

For more information, please contact the Global Communications and Media Relations team at 212.434.9888 or [email protected].