The Washington Examiner (April 30) said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s team is developing a strategy for China based on the idea of “a fight with a really different civilization” for the first time in American history. Pompeo has sounded the alarm about China’s influence around the world, warning of security threats in Europe and the Arctic, as well as predatory lending in the Western Hemisphere. Kiron Skinner, Director of Policy Planning at the State Department, was quoted as saying on April 29, that “This is a fight with a really different civilization and a different ideology and the United States hasn't had that before.” Skinner added “The Soviet Union and that competition, in a way it was a fight within the Western family. It’s the first time that we will have a great power competitor that is not Caucasian.” Skinner told New America CEO Anne Marie Slaughter “We see it as a more fundamental long-term threat. In China, we have an economic competitor, we have an ideological competitor, one that really does seek a global reach that many of us didn't expect a couple of decades ago.” Skinner also said “Trade is not the only problem and maybe not the biggest in the long run with China.” “But we're now looking more deeply and broadly at China. And, I think State is in the lead in that broader attempt to get something like a Letter X for China, what Kennan wrote. You can't have a policy without an argument underneath it.”
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