2026
The United States risks losing the competition with China. It remains the world’s preeminent power, but its capacity at home and abroad to maintain its edge over China is diminishing. The Brookings Institution’s deep bench of experts on both foreign and domestic policy will lay out bold policy initiatives the next presidential administration—whether Republican or Democratic—can take to ensure the U.S. maintains its edge over China.
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The Beijing Brief
As part of the project, Brookings launched The Beijing Brief, which takes listeners behind the scenes of policymaking in Washington, D.C. and Beijing.
Jonathan A. Czin, Ryan Hass, Mara Karlin, Suzanne Maloney
May 8, 2026
John Culver, Jonathan A. Czin, Ryan Hass
April 28, 2026
Kyle Chan, Jonathan A. Czin, Andrew Polk
April 14, 2026
Kyle Chan, Jonathan A. Czin, Ryan Hass, Patricia M. Kim
March 31, 2026
Pillars of research
This project will devise new and bold policy solutions across eight pillars—four on the home front, four in foreign policy.
The home front
This pillar will focus on identifying politically viable ways that the U.S. can develop coherent, bipartisan policies for competing with China.
This research will consider how policymakers can find additional resources to maintain its edge over China given the deteriorating U.S. fiscal situation.
This pillar will provide recommendations from across Brookings for policies that would position the United States to outpace China in key technologies.
This research will identify critical chokepoints, outline the fundamentals of the relevant markets, and design targeted incentives to develop supply chains that are resilient to strategic interventions from Beijing.
Foreign policy
This pillar of research will include recommendations for the military to raise risks and uncertainties for China, as well as ways to enhance the U.S. defense industrial base.
This research will identify both the punitive and affirmative economic policies the United States should pursue in the Indo-Pacific in order to secure its competitive edge.
This pillar will generate ideas for initiatives like the Quad and AUKUS focused on specific aspects of the competition with China and the diplomatic pathways needed to achieve them.
This research will provide fresh assessments of China’s strengths and vulnerabilities, right-size the China challenge, as well as lay out proposals for how best to engage China even as the two sides compete.