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Introduction
Over the last several decades, governments have collectively pledged to slow global warming. But despite intensified diplomacy, the world is already facing the consequences of climate…
Introducing CFR’s China Strategy Initiative
Competition with China poses a challenge unlike any the United States has faced before. To meet the challenge, CFR's new China Strategy Initiative will answer the questions that go to the heart of American China strategy through fresh analysis, granular policy recommendations, and convenings with experts from around the world.
Watch Introduction Video
Core Questions and Programs
The China Strategy Initiative will launch cross-cutting programs to address four foundational questions.
Research Priorities
Explore CFR’s work on the key issues in China strategy.
Domestic China
Taiwan
China’s Gray-Zone Offensive Against Taiwan Is Backfiring
with David Sacks via Foreign Affairs
Would Trump Abandon Taiwan?
Blog Post by David Sacks
Reading Lai Ching-te’s National Day Speech and Its Implications for Cross-Strait Relations
Blog Post by David Sacks
Defense and Security
Economics and Technology
Geopolitics and Diplomacy
Underestimating China: Why America Needs a New Strategy of Allied Scale to Offset Beijing’s Enduring Advantages
with Rush Doshi and Kurt M. Campbell via Foreign Affairs
China in the Indo-Pacific: March 2025
Article by Abi McGowan and Aanika Veedon
U.S. Soft Power Is Spiraling in Asia, With China Filling the Void
Article by Joshua Kurlantzick
Transnational Challenges
Washington and Beijing Don’t Understand Each Other’s Fentanyl Positions
Featuring Yanzhong Huang and Marcel Arsenault via Foreign Policy
Fentanyl Supply Chains in China: Chinese Fentanyl Makers and Domestic Circulation
Blog Post by Zongyuan Zoe Liu
China’s Battle Against Air Pollution: An Update
Blog Post by Yanzhong Huang
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Tracking China’s Investment in Overseas Airports
This interactive map tracks China’s growing network of investments in overseas airports. Users can plot the location of each airport and view satellite images alongside detailed information on which Chinese entities are involved in each project, the share of Chinese ownership (if any), the total dollar value of Chinese investment and the physical attributes of the runways, among others.
![Cambodian carrier Angkor Airways is seen at Phnom Penh international airport August 31, 2006. Angkor Airways is a new airline which will fly between Taipei and the western Chinese city of Chengdu, and Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAMBODIA)]()
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Tracking China’s Control of Overseas Ports
This interactive map tracks China’s growing maritime influence through investments in strategic overseas ports.
![A massive, loaded container ship being tugged from a shipyard.]()
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Why China Would Struggle to Invade Taiwan
Although China’s ambition to gain control of Taiwan is clear, doing so through force would prove enormously difficult and costly.
![A Taiwanese soldier stands in a line during the Han Kuang military exercise.]()
More From the China Strategy Initiative
China Strategy Initiative Launch Event
Join us for the launch of CFR's China Strategy Initiative on Monday, June 24
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Confronting the China Challenge, With Dmitri Alperovitch
Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder and chairman of Silverado Policy Accelerator, co-founder and former chief technology officer of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, and author of World on the Brink: How America Can Beat China in the Race for the Twenty-First Century, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss the geopolitical rivalry between China and the United States, its impact on U.S. interests, and how the United States should respond.
![China's President Xi Jinping attends a "Senior Chinese Leader Event" held by the National Committee on US-China Relations and the US-China Business Council on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco, California, U.S., November 15, 2023. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/Pool]()
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A Conversation With Lina Khan: Antitrust, Innovation, and China’s Competitive Challenge
FTC Chair Lina Khan discusses anti-trust, innovation, and U.S.-China competition.
![Image of Lina Khan and Michael Froman.]()
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America’s China Strategy, With Rush Doshi
Rush Doshi, C.V. Starr Senior Fellow for Asia Studies and director of the China Strategy Initiative, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss how America should navigate its geopolitical rivalry with China.
![Joe Biden and Xi Jinping. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque]()
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The Democratic Party, once the largest pan-democratic opposition party in Hong Kong, has begun the process of dissolving itself. This marks a milestone in Beijing's efforts to push Hong Kong toward illiberal rule.
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The Trump administration is leaning on the Monroe Doctrine as it seeks to shut China out of Latin America.
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The administration’s executive order lays out an ambitious process while stretching the power of existing law. Without significant resource support from Congress, it may do little to improve U.S. maritime power.
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The PRC threatened Taiwan and its partners with live-fire military drills. Taiwan cracked down on Chinese influence and espionage. The Taiwanese Coast Guard boarded and detained the Chinese crew of a ghost ship implicated in a cable-cutting plot.
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China’s involvement across the Indo-Pacific in March 2025 ranged from warming ties with India and deepening cooperation with Bangladesh and Pakistan to increased presence in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean.
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Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder and chairman of Silverado Policy Accelerator, co-founder and former chief technology officer of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, and author of World on the Brink: How America Can Beat China in the Race for the Twenty-First Century, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss the geopolitical rivalry between China and the United States, its impact on U.S. interests, and how the United States should respond.
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China, Russia, and Iran met to call for an end to U.S. Sanctions on Iran and conducted joint naval drills in the Gulf of Oman. China continues to present itself as a potential peace-broker in the Russia-Ukraine war but has openly refrained from joining the Coalition of the Willing. It has slightly pulled back from its purchases of Russian oil and developed rail lines that bypass Russia.