The Trump administration’s National Security Strategy (NSS) characterizes China as a “revisionist power” that is “attempting to erode American security and prosperity” and “shape a world antithetical to US values and interests.”¹ The accompanying National Defense Strategy (NDS) adds that Beijing seeks “veto authority over other nations’ economic, diplomatic, and security decisions” and is modernizing its military in pursuit of “Indo-Pacific regional hegemony in the near-term and displacement of the United States to achieve global preeminence in the future.”² It is true that China represents an unprecedented strategic challenge to the United States and its allies, especially within East Asia. But these documents reflect a stereotype of Beijing and little effort to understand what actually motivates Chinese behavior. Moreover, preoccupation with China as a traditional, Cold War-style ideological or security threat is hindering both an accurate recognition of the nature of the China challenge, and the development of a thoughtful strategic response to it that effectively serves US and allied interests. By misidentifying what China is fundamentally about, the NSS and NDS risk leading Washington down a path that is misguided, prohibitively expensive, and counterproductive.

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