Reflections on the Strategic Competition Act

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The two sponsors of the Strategic Competition Act (S. 1169), Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Senator James Risch (R-ID), chairman and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, respectively, hailed committee passage of the legislation on April 21, stating that the bill “is an unprecedented, bipartisan effort to mobilize all United States strategic, economic, and diplomatic tools for an Indo-Pacific strategy that enables the U.S. government to compete effectively with the People’s Republic of China and the challenges it poses to our national and economic security for decades to come.” By contrast, Dr. Michael Swaine of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft sees the legislation as a dangerous “de facto declaration of a cold war with the People’s Republic of China.”

In an interview conducted on May 27, 2021, Dr. Michael Swaine and Dr. Rachel Odell discuss the Strategic Competition Act and its implications for U.S.-China relations.