The US’ future policymakers are questioning the standard ‘China threat’ playbook

SCMP | Aug. 14, 2026, 10 p.m. | Original

On US college campuses, a generation shaped by China’s rise is challenging the assumptions behind Washington’s approach to Beijing

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Students on US university campuses are increasingly questioning the long-held assumptions behind Washington’s China policy, according to their professors. Photo: TNS

For years, the conventional wisdom in Washington was that America’s China policy was moving in one direction: tougher.

But walk into a classroom at Georgetown, Rice or another US university where the next generation of diplomats and foreign-policy professionals is being trained, and the picture looks less settled.

A generation that has grown up with China’s rise is increasingly sceptical of the idea that Beijing should be treated primarily as America’s great strategic rival .
That matters because many of these students are likely to enter the US State Department , Congress, think tanks, intelligence agencies and the national security bureaucracy.

The question is what they will take with them. Are younger Americans beginning to see China differently from the policymakers who shaped the current consensus – or are their views simply a response to the political and economic moment?

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The experts observing the shift agree that something is changing, but differ over whether it will endure, whether it will survive the pressures of Washington, and how China’s own behaviour could shape what comes next.

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