A strategy that focuses more narrowly on Xi, rather than the CCP as a whole, presents a more achievable objective.'

Read the entire 'Longer Telegram'

‘China under Xi, unlike under previous leaders Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, is no longer a status quo power.’

• ‘It has become what the international-relations world calls a revisionist power, a state bent on changing the world around it.

‘For the United States, its allies and the US-led liberal international order, this represents a fundamental shift.’

• ‘Xi is no longer just a problem for U.S. primacy.’
• ‘He now presents a serious challenge to the whole of the democratic world.’

‘Washington’s difficulty in developing an effective China strategy lies in the absence of a clearly understood strategic objective.’

• ‘At present, objectives articulated by various officials range from inducing Chinese economic reform through a limited trade war to full-blown regime change that focuses on overthrowing the Communist Party.’
• ‘So what should this objective be—and what understanding of China is it based on?’

‘The present challenge will require a qualitatively different and more granular policy response to China than the blunt instrument of “containment with Chinese characteristics” and a dream of CCP collapse.’

• ‘In fact, indulgence in politically appealing calls for the overthrow of the 91 million-member CCP as a whole is strategically self-defeating.’
• ‘Such an approach only strengthens Xi’s hand as it enables him to circle elite political and popular nationalist wagons in defense of both party and country.’

‘In contrast, a strategy that focuses more narrowly on Xi, rather than the CCP as a whole, presents a more achievable objective—and also points to policies that serve to weaken rather than embolden his autocratic leadership in the process.’