US launches Office of China Coordination to ensure ‘nimbler and more consistent policy’

Stronger American military-industrial supply chains are needed to meet challenge posed by Beijing, says Biden’s national security adviser

US also wants to engage China to keep competition within bounds and cooperate on global issues where possible, Jake Sullivan adds

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US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan speaks during a news conference at the White House on Monday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 5:30am, 17 Dec 2022Updated: 6:47am, 17 Dec 2022

Washington has launched an Office of China Coordination to ensure “nimbler and more consistent policy” and called for stronger military-industrial supply chains to meet the “pacing challenge” that Beijing represents, top US officials said on Friday.

The new State Department office will help ensure the administration’s China strategy is effectively implemented, the agency said.

The administration of President Joe Biden has spent the past two years crafting policy architecture to strengthen alliances, reboot US competitiveness, exit “endless wars” and cut off leading semiconductor technology to China’s military.

But it also wants to engage with the People’s Republic of China to keep competition within bounds and, where possible, cooperate on climate and other global issues following Biden and President Xi Jinping’s November meeting in Indonesia, said US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

“It doesn’t erase the difficulties, the tensions, the potential for crises that needs to be managed very carefully through effective communications channels,” added Sullivan, 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 US and the PRC and to effectuate a strategy towards the PRC.”