Rethinking U.S. Strategy Toward China

Posted: January 18th, 2016

By John McLaughlin

John E. McLaughlin is the Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He served as Acting Director of Central Intelligence from July to September 2004 and as Deputy Director of Central Intelligence from October 2000 to July 2004. He was a US Army Officer in the 1960s, with service in Vietnam.

Understanding China and its future ambitions is a fundamental first step in assessing the U.S.’ options on how to best engage China as an important strategic and economic partner. We asked former Acting Director and Deputy Director of the CIA John McLaughlin to lay out the framework for understanding the challenges of China, which provides the context for the differing perspectives of our contributors today.

The fundamental U.S. policy problem regarding China resides in two key facts: First, China is absolutely certain to be a powerful and important country far into the future. Second, its ultimate character – whether it will be an adversary, competitor, or partner – remains highly uncertain.

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