Uploaded July 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
In just a few short years, the United States’ China policy has undergone nothing short of a revolution. Few people have been more central to that shift than Matt Pottinger. He was a reporter in China for Reuters and The Wall Street Journal, then a U.S. Marine, deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan. He went on to become the top policymaker on Asia and the deputy national security adviser in the Trump administration.
Pottinger argues in a new essay for Foreign Affairs that even though Washington’s China strategy has already gotten much tougher, it still has a ways to go—to take on more risk and lay out a clear, if radical, goal for the kind of China the United States wants to see. His views are a window into what China policy might look like if Donald Trump returns to the White House.
You can find transcripts and more episodes of The Foreign Affairs Interview at foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/foreign-affairs-interview.
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In just a few short years, the United States’ China policy has undergone nothing short of a revolution. Few people have been more central to that shift than Matt Pottinger. He was a reporter in China for Reuters and The Wall Street Journal, then a U.S. Marine, deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan. He went on to become the top policymaker on Asia and the deputy national security adviser in the Trump administration.
Pottinger argues in a new essay for Foreign Affairs that even though Washington’s China strategy has already gotten much tougher, it still has a ways to go—to take on more risk and lay out a clear, if radical, goal for the kind of China the United States wants to see. His views are a window into what China policy might look like if Donald Trump returns to the White House.
You can find transcripts and more episodes of The Foreign Affairs Interview at foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/foreign-affairs-interview.
Never miss an episode. Sign up for the Foreign Affairs Interview newsletter, delivered every other Thursday:
foreignaffairs.com/newsletter/the_foreign_affairs_interview?utm_medium=social&utm_source=youtube_posts&utm_campaign=podcast_notes
Subscribe to the rest of our free newsletters here:
foreignaffairs.com/newsletter?utm_medium=social&utm_source=youtube_posts&utm_campaign=podcast_notes
