Useful food for thought from Professor Andy Nathan last week in Foreign Policy on framing our understanding of China’s ambitions: “What Exactly Is America’s China Policy?” Most of the folks I chat with about China are comfortable that we are moving in the right direction, but all of them have one or a hundred points on the parts that need more work. Makes for some spirited debate.
Here’s one more point to debate. As we characterize the challenge, I’d highlight that the Communist Party term-of-art “Digital China” is not even part of the conversation. Please remember that in Beijing, it is the conversation. Communist Party references to “digitally transforming the path to National Rejuvenation” are, well, stunning. In the end, it may not be the most important thing, but we need a national/corporate process for evaluating why Xi Jinping himself seems to think it is one of the most important things.