For example, Heer wrote that the report commits a “fundamental error” in its analysis of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, including its claims that Xi is primarily responsible for the threat that China now poses to the United States and that the Chinese leader is returning to “an older form of Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy.” He continued:Įvery one of these assertions is inaccurate. Paul Heer, a former US national intelligence officer for East Asia, argued in The National Interest that the report neither accurately diagnoses the problems presented by China nor proposes a realistic strategy. Others have offered substantive critiques of the paper. Several commentators, for example, challenged the author’s analysis of China’s internal politics and its ambitions. Hopefully, President Biden’s senior policymakers not only will take notice, but will amplify, sharpen and act upon many of its recommendations.Ĭalling “The Longer Telegram” a “brilliant essay,” Juliet Samuel, a columnist for The Telegraph, argued that while “Donald Trump woke up Washington to the threat” posed by China, he was unable “to devise a strategy, forge bipartisan support, and recruit allies”-deficiencies the United States must now lead an effort to address. The Longer Telegram has spurred an important debate-both regarding how to ensure that a China strategy, about which there is a growing American and allied consensus, can be sustained over the next several decades and, equally important, how it should be implemented. In an article for The Hill, Dov Zakheim, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, member of the Atlantic Council’s Board of Directors, and former senior US defense official, noted that “Washington and many capitals around the world are abuzz” about “The Longer Telegram.” And whatever the paper’s shortcomings, that’s a good thing, he argued: For like Kennan’s strategy of containment, our China policy, to be successful, also needs to be very bipartisan and ready to be operationalized for decades. I hope my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, all have the opportunity to read this, analyze it. ‘The Longer Telegram,’ while not perfect, sets out what I believe is certainly one of the best strategies I have read to date about how the United States needs to address this significant challenge that we will be facing for decades. And this also means we must redouble our efforts in making the strategic case not just to Americans, but to others around the world, particularly our allies… But doing so will require a new level of strategic initiative, organization, and confidence in who we are and what we stand for. In a speech on the Senate floor, he urged his colleagues to read the paper, arguing that the United States has arrived at a historic moment in which it urgently needs to develop a bipartisan strategy toward a rising China:Īs we have in the past, Americans can prevail in this long-term geopolitical and ideological contest. In China itself, the paper has elicited sharp criticism from the Foreign Ministry and a slew of pieces in the state-run Global Times.īack in Washington, DC, Dan Sullivan, an Alaska senator and member of the Armed Services Committee, had a much more positive reaction. Today, no issue is more pressing than the question of what the United States and its allies should do about China. It’s a global conversation-an exchange of big ideas and bold strategy proposals-that we welcome, as an institution with a proud tradition of fostering debate on the most pressing issues in international affairs. In the days since its publication, “The Longer Telegram” has sparked a spirited debate everywhere from India and Pakistan to Britain and Singapore. On January 28, the Atlantic Council published “ The Longer Telegram: Toward a new American China strategy.” Authored by an anonymous former senior government official and modeled on former American diplomat George Kennan’s famous “Long Telegram” at the dawn of the Cold War, the paper dissects internal Chinese political dynamics and outlines a comprehensive strategy for addressing the singular challenge China now poses to the United States and the democratic world. FebruThe world reacts to ‘The Longer Telegram’
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