Senators propose commission to develop grand strategy for Communist China

On September 30th, a bipartisan panel of 15 senators is seeking to establish a commission to develop a grand strategy on Communist China to avoid conflict between the United States and Communist China, while allowing the United States to pursue its interests. Senators have said they will introduce legislation on the measure. The proposal is reportedly based on former U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower’s grand strategy for the Soviet Union, the “Project Solarium.” The proposers, mostly members of the Armed Services Committee, hope that the bill will be an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, and the Senate will begin discussions in October.

The proposal would utilize the brightest minds in the public and private sectors to study and evaluate how the United States and the China can interact to strike a balance between avoiding conflict and fully pursuing U.S. national interests.

The proposed commission includes legislators, executive branch officials and private sector experts. It consists of 18 members, with two co-chairs agreed upon by Congress and the President, and drawn from commissioners of two senators, two House members, six executive branch officials and eight private sector experts.

The commission will develop a holistic approach across the federal government, while identifying the concrete steps needed to establish a stable international order, taking into account of the involvement of Communist China in that order. While the House of Representatives panel on China group has some partisan nature, most of the hundreds of recommendations have bipartisan support, such as the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 passed in July.