White House Asia policy chief: Communism drives new Xi policies

Chinese communist ideology has become the driving force behind President Xi Jinping’s campaign to make the regime the world’s dominant power, according to the White House’s most senior China affairs policymaker.

Kurt Campbell, the National Security Council coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, said in a new, in-depth interview that the newly emerging dictatorial system under Mr. Xi poses a threat to the U.S.-led democratic world order that has produced unrivaled peace and prosperity.

During many recent interactions with Chinese officials, “the ideological factor figures prominently,” Mr. Campbell told the online newsletter The Wire China. “Some of the rhetoric and some of the approaches appear more out of the 1950s and ‘60s, than the aughts and [2020]s.”

China under Mr. Xi has revived communist ideology for the reported 98 million members of the ruling Communist Party. Mr. Xi has promoted “socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era,” adding flexibility to traditional Marxist economic thought.

Mr. Campbell, a former China policymaker at the State Department and Pentagon in previous administrations, also said past unfettered U.S. economic and political engagement with China was a mistake. Mr. Campbell was out of government in 2018 when he co-authored an article in the journal Foreign Affairs that concluded the 40-year U.S. policy of engaging China in a bid to alter its political trajectory was a failure.

Asked about the article, Mr. Campbell said the multi-decade engagement policy that ended during the Trump administration was promoted by U.S. officials with “overly ambitious goals for how Chinese society would change and evolve.”

“We were probably too wedded to a kind of commercial engagement, and we did not see some of the gathering clouds — or chose not to,” he said.

An interesting question regarding U.S.-China relations is “why it took so long for the United States to recognize that we were dealing with a competitor that was seeking to undermine it in many ways,” Mr. Campbell said.

Communicating and competing

Mr. Campbell is now leading a new Biden administration policy seeking closer communications with China while continuing to compete with Beijing economically and militarily. The policy comes amid growing worries of a conflict over Taiwan, or some type of unforeseen incident that could escalate into a major war, Mr. Campbell said.

China, he noted, is continuing to reject military-to-military talks with the United States but is open to discussions on the global economy and climate issues. President Biden also is expected to meet with Mr. Xi later this year as part of the new policy, Mr. Campbell said.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen both recently made separate visits to China for talks, and John Kerry, presidential climate envoy, is currently in China.

Mr. Campbell said he expects further interactions between Treasury and Commerce Department officials in the coming months.

China remains ambivalent over direct military talks, suspended in August 2022 after former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan, over concerns about “party-military relations” and “anxieties about what these mechanisms might be used for,” he said.

But Mr. Campbell argued that engagement was still the right course: “We believe that a more predictable, judicious set of interactions across a variety of spheres is in our best interests, both diplomatic and financial — and hopefully at some point on the military side.”

Mr. Campbell helped set up U.S.-China military communications channels, including a maritime consultative group in the 1990s. “The challenge has been that China has chosen generally not to use them for a whole host of reasons,” he said.

Asked about the past economic and strategic dialogue with China during the Obama administration that critics say failed to produce concrete results, Mr. Campbell said Mr. Xi’s centralization of power has undone decades of collective leadership in China.

“What we have seen is this quite dramatic centralization and hierarchy in the Chinese system,” Mr. Campbell said. “To really make changes on any issue, whether it’s on fentanyl or maritime patrols or trade policy, requires an extremely high level of engagement. That’s what we’ve sought to do.”

Security first

Security issues now dominate decision-making in Beijing, both internally and outside the country, he said.

Current talks with Chinese officials involve a very narrow scope for discussion, and involve mainly the “reciting of talking points,” by the Chinese, he said, adding that is a substantial change from the past.

“In some respects, it harkens back to an earlier era in China, where ideology and the [Communist Party] line were of paramount importance,” he said.

Mr. Campbell recounted a recent exchange with a Chinese diplomat who told him he could talk about children or sports, but that earlier candid discussions were out of bounds.

The new U.S. detente policy is being conducted carefully as a result.

“We have to make clear that we’re not a wildly ardent suitor,” he said. “We are seeking these engagements because as a great power we have been in situations like this before and in many respects, China is new to some of them.”

He said China’s military remains a major worry, as People’s Liberation Army actions have been “provocative and dangerous.” Mr. Xi’s own writings have set off alarm bells in Washington since he first came to power in 2012.

“They involve statements about creating dominance over the United States in technology, long before we discussed these issues,” he said. “He has laid out clearly, both in internal documents and external statements, the need for China to take massive rapid steps to prepare for potential military scenarios.”

The careful military expansion conducted under prior Chinese President Hu Jintao has shifted in a large-scale conventional and nuclear arms buildup under Mr. Xi. The Chinese leader “has exhibited a degree of impatience and ambition with respect to Taiwan that concerns us,” Mr. Campbell said.

Mr. Campbell also said many Chinese experts were wrong to dismiss worries about the growing China-Russia alliance. Building deep ties to Moscow is Mr. Xi’s most important project aside from building national power and his own authority, he argued.

The joint China-Russia agreement concluded in the weeks before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine highlights both countries’ “imperial” designs and “represents beliefs and sentiments that are antithetical to ours,” Mr. Campbell said.

The White House China czar said Mr. Biden’s new approach to Beijing is based on the need for a continued U.S. relationship that is based on the recognition that some of China’s actions “require a consequential set of actions to push back.”

Asked about Ms. Yellen’s comment that a strong and prosperous China is in America’s interest, Mr. Campbell said: “We don’t seek the toppling of the Chinese regime. We are seeking to contest [China] in a number of ways. We’re trying to increase our own capacity — our own ability to compete. We’re trying to create a degree of redundancy across the board. We are also aware that elements of this global operating system are under threat. We’re seeking to stabilize, defend and secure it.”

Mr. Campbell noted that not too long ago China’s leaders declared an end to engagement with the United States. Then a few months ago that changed and the Chinese sought to hold discussions, some designed to roll back new U.S. limits on technology exports to China.

China’s slowing economy also influenced Mr. Xi to renew contacts with the United States, he added.

A core problem is that China’s actions within the world trade system, in Washington’s view, “have been antithetical to many of our partners and the United States,” Mr. Campbell said. “They are probably increasing in intensity and tenacity in ways that are concerning.”

American concerns over Chinese economic activities are “across the board,” he said, including subsidies or forced intellectual property or technology transfers.

“But increasingly what we see is a state ideology that is about seeking advantage in almost every area of encounter,” Mr. Campbell said. “That’s a difficult reality to grasp and to develop a counter strategy to deal with, but that’s exactly what we’re trying to do.”