
The U.S.-China Great Power Competition
Research Focus
The most crucial challenge facing U.S. policymakers today is how to prevail in great power competition with China. The first step to devising an effective U.S. strategy for great power competition is to understand and correctly characterize how China builds power and influence in the international system. Yet serious analysis to answer this question is scant.
The U.S.-China Great Power Competition project aims to fill in this gap. Drawing heavily on Chinese sources and engaging with experts from the diplomatic, economic, technology, and military sectors, it pieces together the logic behind Chinese actions and behavior in foreign policy, military strategy, and the economics and technology realms.
The project uses the crucial case of China’s rise over the past 25 years to explore what shapes the strategic approach of rising powers as they accumulate influence, where they imitate, and where they innovate. It reveals that China builds power largely by differentiating itself from the United States. The findings will make significant contributions to key theoretical and policy debates about China’s intentions and goals and, more broadly, how states compete.
This research will result in a book that analyzes and explains the specific policies, strategies, and approaches China has employed over the past 25 years to build enough power to be considered a great power competitor. The book will make vital theoretical and policy contributions to China studies, international relations and power transition theories, and great power competition. It will allow policymakers to better anticipate China’s actions, develop more effective strategies to counter unfavorable Chinese activities, and understand how to push the competition with China into realms where the United States has the upper hand.
Featured Media
Hiding in Plain Sight: How China Builds and Exercises Military Power
Stanford Seminar
Rethinking Our Assumptions About China’s Strategic Goals
World Class Podcast
Publications
Reassurance and Deterrence in Asia
In Security Studies, November 4, 2022
Deterrence in the Indo-Pacific
In "Minilateral Deterrence in the Indo-Pacific," a roundtable in Asia Policy 17:4, October 22, 2022.
See also New Essay Collection Examines Minilateral Deterrence in the Indo-Pacific, APARC website, October 2022.
Is China a Challenge to U.S. National Security?
In The China Questions 2: Critical Insights into US-China Relations (Harvard University Press), August 2022.
See also Assessing China’s Conventional and Unconventional Challenges to U.S. National Security, APARC website, August 2022.
Defense, Deterrence, and the Role of Guam
In Defending Guam, The Hudson Institute, July 2022
Understanding the Challenge of China’s Rise: Fixing Conceptual Confusion about Intentions
In Journal of Chinese Political Science, June 2022
See also Problems with Revisionism: A Conceptual Framework for Assessing Chinese Intentions, APARC website, June 2022
Chinese Grand Strategy
In Strategy in the Contemporary World, Oxford University Press, March 2022
China's Grand Strategy
Asia Policy 17.1, January 2022
Nuclear Deterrence and the US-China Strategic Relationship
In Alliances, Nuclear Weapons and Escalation: Managing Deterrence in the 21st Century (eds. Stephan Frühling and Andrew O’Neil), ANU Press, December 2021
Military Competition With China: Harder Than the Cold War?
SMA Perspectives, September 2021
Commentary
China Hasn’t Reached the Peak of Its Power
Foreign Affairs, August 2022
Beijing Is Used to Learning from Russian Failures
Foreign Policy, April 2022
North Korea Is Becoming an Asset for China
Foreign Affairs, February 2022
In Defense of AUKUS
The Lowy Institute, October 2021
China’s Dangerous Double Game in North Korea
Foreign Affairs, April 2021
The Soft War That America Is Losing
Australian Financial Review, January 2021
Free Nations Must Speak for Australia
Australian Financial Review, December 2020
The United States Must Avoid a Nuclear Arms Race with China
Cato Unbound, September 2020
The Stealth Superpower
Foreign Affairs, January 2019
In the News
US China Tech Ban
BBC World News, November 26, 2022
Biden, Xi Meet in Bali
Bloomberg TV, November 14, 2022
Analysis: Biden-xi Summit Delivers Calmer Tone, Reminders of US-china Fault Lines
Radio Free Asia, November 14, 2022
Stanford and AEI's Mastro on China's Military
Bloomberg TV, October 27, 2022
The People’s Liberation Army’s Modernization & Capabilities
Asia Experts Forum, October 27, 2022
Filling the Gaps in the Indo-Pacific Security Architecture
The Japan Times, October 26, 2022
Outside of China, Concern Exceeds Optimism as Xi Jinping Begins Third Term as Ruler
Radio Free Asia, October 23, 2022
China’s Military Is Catching Up to the U.S. Is It Ready for Battle?
Wall Street Journal, October 20, 2022
How Xi Jinping Is Reshaping China, in Five Charts
Christian Science Monitor, October 17, 2022
Perspectives on the 20th Party Congress
CCP Watch of the Center for Advanced China Research, October 17, 2022
Xi’s Vow to ‘Stand Tall’ Has China on Collision Course With US
Bloomberg, October 12, 2022
Us National Security Strategy Calls Competition With China Its ‘Most Consequential Geopolitical Challenge’
South China Morning Post, October 12, 2022
Balance of Power
Monocle Magazine, June 2022
China Looks to Learn from Russia's Shortcomings in Ukraine
NPR, April 2022
China's Lessons from Russia's War in Ukraine
VOA, April 2022
President Biden Presses Chinese President Xi Jinping on Russia
KTVU, March 2022
50 Years After Nixon Visit, U.S.-China Ties as Fraught as Ever
AP News, February 2022
From ‘Momentous’ to ‘Meh’ — Trump's China Trade Deal Letdown
Politico, January 2022
Biden and Xi Agree to Move Toward Arms Control Talks, Says US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan
South China Morning Post, November 2021
After 9/11, China Grew into a Superpower as a Distracted US Fixated on Terrorism
NBC News, October 2021
Is U.S. Foreign Policy Too Hostile to China?
Foreign Affairs, October 2021
Balance of Power: Surprise China Missile Test
Bloomberg, October 2021
US-UK-Australia Defend Nuclear Sub Deal
BBC Newshour, September 2021
Why Australia Bet the House on Lasting American Power in Asia
The New York Times, September 2021
US, UK, Australia Announce ‘Historic’ Military Partnership in Move Likely to Anger China
South China Morning Post, September 2021
China's Bold Gamble
The Australian, May 2021
Biden Looks For Defense Hotline With China
Foreign Policy, May 2021
US, China Take a Less Belligerent Tone in Remarks to UN Security Council
South China Morning Post, May 2021
China and Russia's Military Arsenals are Terrifying in Scale — but How Would They Perform in Combat?
The Telegraph, March 2021
The Bidding War
The Wire China, January 2021
China’s Xi Looks to Take Advantage of a Strong Economic Hand
The Wall Street Journal, January 2021
Time for the West to Revisit Its China Narratives
Politico, November 2020
Multimedia
Imagining a Clear View of China
ThinkTech Hawaii
How to Deter China Amid Mounting Geopolitical Challenges
Conversation Six
On Tony Blinken's Indo-Pacific Vision
Conversation Six
On the Australia-UK-US Security Pact
Conversation Six
China's Balancing Act in North Korea
Conversation Six
On the Biden Administration's China Doctrine and Beijing's Behavior
Conversation Six
China's Space Ambition
Space Strategy Podcast
Military Competition with China: Harder to Win Than the Cold War?
Seminar at Stanford APARC China Program
What a Biden Presidency Means for U.S.-China Relations
FSI’s WorldClass podcast