U.S.-China engagement era has come to an end, says top U.S. official

Kurt Campbell says ‘competition’ would henceforth be ‘the dominant paradigm’ and working with allies will be the way forward.

The more than three-decade long era of engagement between the United States and China that saw the world’s two largest economies develop closely interdependent relations “has come to an end”, a top official of the Biden administration has said. “The period that was broadly described as engagement has come to an end,” Kurt Campbell, who is the Coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs and the top U.S. official for Asia, said at a Stanford University event. He said “competition” would henceforth be “the dominant paradigm” and U.S. policy would work under “a new set of strategic parameters”, Bloomberg News quoted him as saying. Mr. Campbell’s comments underline the shift in the U.S. views on China from the time of the Obama administration as well as the broadly bipartisan consensus on the current direction of relations, following four turbulent years for the relationship under the previous Trump administration.