US faces critical shortage of China expertise within a decade, report warns
Ageing cadre and a weak pipeline risk eroding US-China policy, business insight and national security preparedness as prowess dwindles
The United States will face a “critical shortage” of China expertise within a decade that threatens to leave policymakers struggling to manage Washington’s most consequential strategic relationship, a report said on Monday.
As China experts retire and the number of Americans studying in China sharply declines, the resulting talent gap presents a “national security and an economic competitiveness” problem, warned the report by an expert working group of the Washington-based non-profit US-China Education Trust.
“It is a national security imperative that that happens,” said Nicholas Burns, the US ambassador to China under President Joe Biden, who spoke at the report’s launch, underscoring the importance of studying Mandarin and living in China.
The study, conducted between September 2025 and January 2026 and funded by the US embassy in Beijing under the President Donald Trump administration, argued that China expertise should be treated as a strategic asset, urging Washington to elevate bilateral education exchanges to the same level as trade and security in US-China relations.
“America’s ability to understand and manage its most consequential strategic relationship is eroding,” the report observed, citing the loss as specialists retire and are not replaced.
FULL EVENT: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi holds press conference
The report found much to blame on both sides, including restrictive visa policies, overblown espionage fears, deep mistrust, reduced budgets and overly tight national security concerns.