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national leaders of tomorrow. For China, all exchanges have a political character and
hopefully a political harvest.
Third, it is important for local officials to understand that local American “exchange” companies that bring Chinese delegations to the United States and promote professional interactions between the United States and China all depend on official PRC sanction and have received approval to receive Chinese delegations. The business model of such companies is, of necessity, as much political as financial. Even if they conduct high-quality programs, they should not be viewed as disinterested actors. They, too, are subject to rules made by the Chinese Communist Party, its united front
bureaucracy, and united front strategic imperatives.
Finally, American citizens of PRC origin have played a key role in promoting mutually beneficial engagement over the past forty years. As US-China relations grow more contentious, however, and as Beijing calls more aggressively for diaspora Chinese to serve the “motherland,” it will be necessary for citizen diplomats (including those who are not of PRC origin) to better educate themselves about American national interests in the US-China competition and the areas in which the nation’s values, institutional practices, and strategic goals are incompatible. Such awareness is even more vital for Chinese Americans who seek political office and whose abilities to navigate these
shoals will depend on their knowledge of this complex system of interaction.
American Communities as Engines of Engagement
The American federal system allows sub-national governments considerable leeway
to pursue local interests generally regardless of Washington’s security concerns. Free from geostrategic worries, state, county, and municipal leaders who have formed commercial and people-to-people relationships with the PRC have been a bulwark
of better US-China relations since the early 1970s, and their efforts to build mutual understanding and solve joint problems formed the bedrock of bilateral relations over four decades. However, as China becomes more reliant on its old Leninist system and “united front” tactics (48% skBs), Sino-US relations become more contentious, and
the CCP seeks to more forcefully build influence in American communities through channels detailed in this study, local leaders will be called upon to give greater weight to national interests when forming exchange relationships with PRC actors. Conversely, as Beijing’s relations with Washington worsen, China will likely seek to use tried-and-true “divide and conquer” tactics by cultivating new relations with more
state and local-level officials.
Section 2
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