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The US Department of State formally launches its ‘China House’ unit

On Friday, the US Department of State publicly introduced its ‘China House’ division (December 16). The unit is an internal reorganisation designed to aid and improve the department’s policymaking with regard to China, the primary geopolitical opponent of the United States.

In May of this year, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the creation of such a unit. He referred to it at the time as a department-wide, integrated team that would coordinate and put US policies across issues and regions into practise.

According to Blinken in May, ‘the breadth and scope of the challenge provided by the People’s Republic of China will test American diplomacy like nothing we’ve ever seen.’

On Friday, he presided over the official opening of the unit. It is formally called the Office of China Coordination.

He noted that creation of the unit will ensure that the United States is able to ‘responsibly manage’ competition with Beijing, according to a department statement.

The release described Blinken as adding that China specialists from throughout the government will be gathered in the ‘China House’ to coordinate with ‘every regional bureau and experts in international security, economics, technology, multilateral diplomacy, and strategic communications.’

According to a department official, it will take the position of the department’s China Desk, but Rick Waters, the deputy assistant secretary of state for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs, will continue to be in charge of it.

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