Speaking at the Stanford Shorenstein Center, Stanford University, Kurt Campbell, the US coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs on the National Security Council, on May 26 said “The period that was broadly described as engagement has come to an end,” and US policy towards China will now operate under a “new set of strategic parameters”. Campbell said, adding that “the dominant paradigm is going to be competition”. He said Chinese policies under President Xi are in large part responsible for the shift in US policy, Mr Campbell said, citing military clashes on China’s border with India, an “economic campaign” against Australia and the rise of China’s “wolf warrior” diplomacy. He said Beijing’s behaviour was emblematic of a shift towards “harsh power, or hard power” which “signals that China is determined to play a more assertive role”. Stating that Xi Jinping is at the heart of the new approach to US-China ties, Campbell described the Chinese president as “deeply ideological but also quite unsentimental”, adding that Xi is “not terribly interested in economics". Kurt Campbell also said that since coming to power in 2012, Xi has “almost completely disassembled nearly 40 years of mechanisms designed for collective leadership”,  and added that top Chinese diplomats such as Politburo member Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi – the top officials dispatched to the talks in Alaska – are “nowhere near, within a hundred miles” of the Chinese leader’s inner circle. Kurt Campbell also said “We believe that the best way to engage a more assertive China is to work with allies, partners and friends,” and that “the best China policy really is a good Asia policy”. He said the US will need to dispel fears of American decline in Asia and offer a “positive economic vision” for the region. “For the first time, really, we are now shifting our strategic focus, our economic interests, our military might more to the Indo-Pacific.” Campbell said the US is looking to convene an in-person meeting of its partners the Quad group of countries in the second half of the year with a focus on infrastructure in the face of the challenge from China Other countries would be welcome to work with the Quad. "We want to look this fall to convene an in-person Quad and the hope will be to make a similar kind of engagement on infrastructure more generally," "And I do want to underscore...this is not a fancy club. If there are other countries that believe that they'd like to engage and work with us, the door will be open as we go forward."

(Comment: Kurt Campbell's remarks clearly lay out the US policy towards China and US intentions to focus on Asia. His remarks, interestingly, appear to single out Xi Jinping as the problem.)