Nine Recommendations to Presidential Candidates on China Policy

There is bipartisan agreement that America’s next president will confront intensifying Sino-American competition and an aggressive People’s Republic of China (PRC). Candidates for the presidency should develop a comprehensive policy on how to approach the economic, military, and political threats that China poses. Here are nine recommendations to presidential candidates on China policy.

First, Derek Scissors recommends how the US can defeat Chinese economic coercion:

1) A big barrier to good China policy is America’s business and financial community. Leading on this issue means telling business to change, and not distracting policymakers with less important issues such as small amounts of land acquisition. 

America is too reliant on China in supply chain components from vitamins in animal feed to semiconductor materials/packaging. Made in America doesn’t mean safe from China—America’s future chip plants might depend on Chinese high-purity silicon. 

The US has failed to act, even small steps have been watered down by business opposition. China can threaten pharmaceuticals and other necessities in a fight over Taiwan. The US should ban Chinese participation in multiple key supply chains.

2) Business poses a different problem in intellectual property (IP). Because firms don’t want stockholders to know valuable IP has been lost, the US doesn’t know what China has stolen or coerced. Without that information, we can’t prevent China from profiting off illegal activity. The US should require disclosure of lost IP, with guaranteed confidentiality, and block transactions with those who benefited.

3) In export controls, the Department of Commerce first ignored then set aside law passed by Congress. New controls on chips, announced in October 2022, seem promising. But obstacles remain, from bureaucratic opposition to firms immediately circumventing controls to lack of coordination with allies. Political leadership requires ensuring export controls are fully implemented, not melted by the allure of the China market.

Next, Zack Cooper explains how America can deter Chinese military aggression:

4) Beijing has been ramping up pressure on Taiwan for years, so it makes sense for Washington to adjust its own approach in response. US leaders should replace the outdated strategic ambiguity concept with a new strategy of dynamic deterrence, which maintains US objectives but adjusts US strategy in response to changes in cross-Strait dynamics.

5) Washington must also bolster its military preparedness, particularly for a Taiwan-related contingency. Although much of the debate has focused on a possible invasion of Taiwan, Washington should act now to deter China’s campaign of political and economic warfare against Taiwan as well as the possibility of blockade, missile strikes, or seizure of Taiwan’s outlying islands. These scenarios are more likely than a full-scale invasion; indeed, some of them—like China’s economic pressure campaign—are already underway today.

6) Finally, the US should find ways to work more effectively with its key allies and partners on technology issues related to China. Washington needs to present a positive alternative vision for key supply chains. Simply criticizing trade with China won’t attract many friends when America is adopting protectionist measures itself. Implementing a true friend-shoring approach should be a top priority for US leaders.

Finally, Dan Blumenthal elaborates on how the US can utilize all its resources:

7) The US needs a coherent, tightly sequenced and comprehensive counter-coercion strategy for Taiwan. The Chinese Communist Party coerces and isolates Taiwan every day. If the coercion campaign succeeds, the PRC will not need to invade. American strategy should include a free trade agreement with Taiwan and a continuous pace of high-level US visitors to work with Taiwan on functional issues such as public health, nonproliferation, energy, and clean tech.  Militarily, US strategy needs to include the capability to project power into the sea lines of communication around Taiwan. If the US can keep open maritime and air passages to Taiwan, then China will not succeed in economic strangulation.

8) The US needs to go on the offensive in its economic competition with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The US and its allies need to enforce their laws against malfeasant CCP companies that operate within US and allied jurisdiction.  The US would find many more Huaweis—companies doing business in the US that are violating a panoply of laws from anti-racketeering to fentanyl distribution. This would not only protect America from malign behavior, it would also impose a serious cost on the CCP. 

9) The US needs to move faster to set up structures of collective defense in Asia. Japan and Australia are moving in the right direction strategically, but the state of coordinated operational planning among the three is very elementary. The US should set up a combined standing task force that plans for a number of contingencies in Asia. Others can be invited into such a grouping, with South Korea and the Philippines at the top of the list.