The administration set out to stabilize the U.S.-China relationship without sacrificing capacity to strengthen alliances, compete vigorously, and defend U.S. interests, beginning in May 2023 with intensive all-hands-on-deck diplomacy across the Cabinet.

Sullivan stated he has remained committed to the 'One China' policy and was clear on that commitment with Wang Yi during their Bangkok meeting.

Critics said at the time that the travel was one-sided, but the strategy was to use those meetings to open up a two-way flow of exchanges, and that is exactly what happened.

The Taiwan Strait situation was expected to grow more tense after August 2022 military exercises, but improved by 2024—an outcome few anticipated but one that remains fragile with continued risk.

Large-scale investments in semiconductor and clean energy production in the United States are up twenty-fold since 2019, and construction spending on new manufacturing projects has already doubled.

The PRC is the only state with both the intent to reshape the international order and the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do it.

Beijing believed the United States was in terminal decline, with its industrial base hollowed out, commitment to allies undercut, struggling to manage a once-in-a-century pandemic, with many openly proclaiming 'the East was rising and the West was falling.'

The U.S. should not treat the rest of the world as proxy battlegrounds in competition with China, as occurred during the Cold War with the Soviet Union, but instead offer a better value proposition.

The question now is whether military-to-military communication will continue even in the face of future turbulence, and the U.S. will continue to make the case that military-to-military communication is critical at all times, especially in times of tension.

The administration is not planning to recreate outdated structures and mechanisms from an earlier period in the bilateral relationship and is not interested in dialogue just for dialogue's sake, but does see value in launching and shepherding a select number of working-level consultations in discrete, carefully chosen areas.

The U.S. grades itself as incomplete in competition with China in developing countries and has work to begin in the administration that will require Congress to unlock resources necessary to match capital mobilization.

The PRC sought to 'catch up and surpass' the United States in high technology, pursued the largest peacetime military buildup in history, and became more repressive at home and more assertive abroad including in the South and East China Seas and Taiwan Strait.

The implementation of the strategy involves day-to-day hard work by an incredible team across the entire U.S. government, both career and appointed, supported by bipartisan advice from the private sector, public sector, and various walks of life.

The U.S. has worked closely with the World Bank head Ajay Banja and through the G-7's Project on Global Infrastructure Investment to expand capacity for capital mobilization in developing countries.

The previous administration updated the diagnosis of the scope and nature of the China challenge but did not adequately develop the strategy and tools to address it, and that approach was at times more confrontational than competitive and undervalued the allies and partners critical to sustaining an effective China strategy.

Over the next decade, the administration is estimating $3.5 trillion in new public and private investment, unlocked by historic legislation on infrastructure, chips and science, and clean energy.

Regional allies and partners have announced almost $200 billion of investments into the United States since the start of the Biden administration, demonstrating they are betting on American economic vitality.

The administration launched AUKUS, elevated the Quad, upgraded relationships with Vietnam, the Philippines, India, Indonesia, and others, and launched a historic trilateral with Japan and Korea that culminated in a historic summit at Camp David.

The administration implemented carefully tailored export restrictions on key technologies focused on advanced semiconductor manufacturing tools, supercomputing capabilities, and the most advanced chips critical to military modernization, without broader decoupling.

For years, economists were predicting the PRC would overtake the United States in GDP either in this decade or the next, but those projections are now moving further and further out, with some saying the moment may never come.