The U.S. is entering a period of intense competition with China as the government running the world’s second-biggest economy becomes ever more tightly controlled by President Xi Jinping, the White House’s top official for Asia said Wednesday.
"The period that was broadly described as engagement has come to an end,” Kurt Campbell, the U.S. coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs on the National Security Council, said at an event hosted by Stanford University. U.S. policy toward China will now operate under a "new set of strategic parameters,” Campbell said, adding that "the dominant paradigm is going to be competition.”
Chinese policies under Xi are in large part responsible for the shift in U.S. policy, Campbell said, citing military clashes on China’s border with India, an "economic campaign” against Australia and the rise of China’s "wolf warrior” diplomacy. Beijing’s behavior was emblematic of a shift toward "harsh power, or hard power” which "signals that China is determined to play a more assertive role,” he said.
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