China's Responses to a Changing Security Environment

Abraham M. Denmark is the Director of the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and Senior Fellow at the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States.

Phillip C. Saunders is the Director of the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs and a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University.

Thomas G. Mahnken is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

Time Stamps

[2:48] Moderator Abraham Denmark introduces the panelists and the topic.

[4:03] Phillip Saunders assesses how China’s policies follow an “adaptive” strategy.

[4:45] Saunders discusses how China’s policies go through periods of assertiveness and restraint not only to maintain “status quo” goals but also to make progress on “revisionist” goals.

[8:06] Saunders talks about China’s strategy to implement the country’s goals, through diplomatic, information, military, and economic means.

[11:20] Saunders explains China’s strategy to prevent confrontation with the United States, and how China may have misjudged the United States in recent years.

[16:43] Thomas Mahnken highlights four “dials” of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that raise concern for the United States.

[18:34] Mahnken introduces the first “dial”: the domestic versus international priorities of CCP leadership.

[19:37] The second “dial”: China’s interests in continental versus maritime domains.

[20:41] The third “dial”: China’s approach to maintain status quo versus revisionism.

[21:34] The fourth “dial”: authoritarian versus pluralistic tendencies of China’s political system.

[23:19] Mahnken offers recommendations for the United States to address China’s strategy.

[24:05] Mahnken gives his thoughts about a potential U.S.-China trade deal.

[25:18] Denmark asks Saunders and Mahnken what the key arenas of U.S.-China competition are and what successful competition in these areas looks like from an American perspective.

[26:34] Saunders emphasizes the importance of the Indo-Pacific region and maintaining alliances with countries in the region. He also talks about the ideological competition between China and the United States.

[29:12] Mahnken underscores how the competition is about the continued rule of the CCP, and how the CCP seeks to exert influence in a regional and global environment.

Related Event

Asia Policy Assembly 2019 was held on June 18–19 in Washington, D.C. Learn more.