Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Friday that the State Department is launching a new Office of China Coordination, known at the agency as "China House," to manage competition with that country and advance a vision of having "an open, inclusive international system."
"China House will ensure the U.S. government is able to responsibly manage our competition with the People's Republic of China and advance our vision for an open, inclusive international system," an agency press release announcing the office read. "Our goal in creating China House is to help deliver on elements of the administration's approach to the PRC."
The office will bring together a group of China experts to work with a variety of colleagues on issues addressing international security, economics, technology, multilateral diplomacy and strategic communications, the release read.
"China House is a key component of the secretary's modernization agenda, which is focused on equipping the department to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities of the decade ahead," the release read. "The secretary and department leadership are committed to ensuring we have the talent, tools and resources to successfully execute U.S. policy and strategy towards the PRC as the most complex and consequential geopolitical challenge we face."
The agency said the improved coordination will make policies "more consistent" and "nimbler," allowing it to work better with allies and partners.
The South China Morning Post reported Saturday that the move will facilitate working with Chinese President Xi Jinping on collaborative issues like climate change.
"It doesn't erase the difficulties, the tensions, the potential for crises that needs to be managed very carefully through effective communications channels," the publication reported national security adviser Jake Sullivan saying while speaking at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington on Friday. "But it does mean that there is a responsible way to steward the relationship between the U.S. and the PRC and to effectuate a strategy towards the PRC."
According to the report, Sullivan said the U.S. will be strengthening its military-industrial supply chain so it is not "coerced by adversaries at a moment of geopolitical peril by any country being able to turn off some essential goods coming to the U.S."
He also said that the United States is preparing to compete with China and others throughout the world by taking actions like reversing the "America First" policies of the prior administration of former President Donald Trump, according to the report.
"The United States is going to play the long game against both geopolitical competition and the transactional challenges of our time," Sullivan said. "We have made these kinds of down payments."
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