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Rush Doshi Profile picture
Rush Doshi
@RushDoshi
Author of The Long Game: China's Grand Strategy to Displace American Order (OUP, 2021) • Former Director, Brookings China Strategy Initiative & YLS China Fellow
Mar 20 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
After 3+ years at the NSC, it's hard to believe that Monday was my last day.

It was the privilege of a lifetime to serve there - at this time, for this president, and under this NSA - and to do so alongside the most dedicated public servants I've met.

A little on my next steps I’ll be joining the Security Studies Program at Georgetown SFS as an assistant professor. I want to thank @joelhellman_SFS, faculty chair Donato, and @dbyman for the opportunity and for a generous deferral so I could serve at the NSC an additional year.

css.georgetown.edu/2024/03/20/sec…
Jul 8, 2021 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
Today is the launch date for my first book, The Long Game: China's Grand Strategy to Displace American Order!

The book covers the evolution of China’s grand strategy from the end of the Cold War to the present.

It's also number 1 in IR new releases!

amazon.com/Long-Game-Stra… The book features
- 5 years of research
- 400 pages
- 1500 footnotes
- Countless Chinese texts
- Lots of anecdotes drawn from memoirs, compendiums, and other Chinese sources.
Nov 18, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Beijing sent a list of 14 grievances to Australia supposedly justifying its economic coercion against it.

The list is revealing.

It shows the PRC holds countries responsible for their free *civil societies* & serves as a template for illiberal order-building.

Some thoughts: 1/ The list is long:

- Investment scrutiny
- Huawei
- Interference legislation
- Visas
- COVID inquiry
- HR criticism
- SCS stance
- Spreading US "disinformation"
- BRI disinterest
- Think tanks
- PRC journalists
- Reporting cyber attacks
- CCP criticism
- Media

2/
Oct 12, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
These are great points, @ElbridgeColby - and I would agree in various places!

But my article and thread are not arguing that Beijing is "right" but rather that their assessment of US decline is shaping strategy and has for 3-4 years. Each of your excellent questions warrants a longer discussion! I'd be happy to chat at some point.

But in the interest of being useful, here are a few quick thoughts:
Oct 12, 2020 • 21 tweets • 5 min read
Excited to share a new piece in FP!

I argue ODNI's claim that China prefers Trump "not win reelection" tells only half the story.

Party texts show China believes Trump is accelerating US decline.

This has triggered a new phase in PRC grand strategy.

1/
 foreignpolicy.com/2020/10/12/chi… 2. US POWER AT THE CENTER

As I argue in my forthcoming book, The Long Game, every PRC leader in the last 30 years has publicly anchored grand strategy to assessments of US power.

This is captured in euphemisms like "multipolarity" and the "international balance of forces."
Sep 14, 2020 • 5 tweets • 5 min read
Excited to announce that the @BrookingsInst Global China project is publishing 11 papers today on China's role in global governance and norms.

The papers span human rights, democracy, climate, energy, gender, and regional & global multilateralism.

1/
brookings.edu/product/global… The series includes rich papers on:

1. The UN by Jeff Feltman
2. Peacekeeping by @RichardGowan1
3. Human rights by @SophieHRW
4. Xinjiang by @dahlialpeterson and @JimMillward
5. Gender and LGBT issues by @DariusLongarino
6. Regional architecture by @lindseywford

2/
Jul 30, 2020 • 19 tweets • 7 min read
Extraordinarily grateful to have had the opportunity to testify on the China challenge before the @SenateCommerce Subcommittee on Security this morning.

My written submission was on "The US, China, & the Fourth Industrial Revolution" - bit.ly/339LRIX

A few points: 1/ 1. GLOBAL TECH LEADERSHIP: It's increasingly understood that Beijing is pursuing a robust, state-backed effort to displace the US from global technology leadership not only for commercial and developmental reasons but - just as importantly - for *geopolitical* ones too.
May 27, 2020 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
Excited to have our paper "Beijing's Bismarckian Ghosts" generously referenced in @martinwolf_'s column!

We argued that the Anglo-German great power economic rivalry a century ago holds eerie parallels to today’s US-China contest.

Some takeaways:

ft.com/content/5887ec… 1) ON PARALLELS: My coauthors, historian Harold James and economist Markus Brunnermeier, and I recognize that no historical analogy is perfect.

But we believed the Anglo-German rivalry is clearly a useful reference point for US-China economic rivalry.
Apr 24, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
This piece by Zhou Bo reads like propaganda intended to depress Western morale, split the EU and US, and herald China unceasing rise.

Many of these themes occur in China’s domestic discourse, suggesting there’s also a domestic propaganda purpose too. scmp.com/comment/opinio… To what degree do Party elites share this worldview?

Is this the “we will bury you” confidence of Khrushchev, and are some elites just getting high on their own supply of propaganda?

Or is this a considered view and Party judgment? If so, it could be consequential.
Mar 21, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Grateful that the Director of National Intelligence engaged with the piece Kurt and I wrote for @ForeignAffairs

I agree - but whether China "should" be allowed to turn the narrative (it shouldn't!) is different from whether it *will* be able to do.

That should concern us.

1/ I appreciate the DNI's perspective here, but respectfully, if China is seen as leading - and the US is seen as incompetent at home and absent abroad - I'm concerned it'll have major geopolitical implications.

And they're making progress as we falter.

2/
Mar 18, 2020 • 19 tweets • 4 min read
Excited to share a new piece with Kurt Campbell in @ForeignAffairs!

It argues that China is racing to be seen as the global leader of the coronavirus response as the US falters.

China knows that orders can change gradually at first, then all at once.

foreignaffairs.com/articles/2020-… 1. HEALTH FIRST: The virus's geopolitical implications should be considered secondary to matters of health and safety, but they are not being forgotten in Beijing nor should they be ignored in Washington - and they have implications for the US position.
Mar 16, 2020 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
Serbian President: "The only country that can help us is China."

“By now, you all understood that European solidarity does not exist. That was a fairy tale on paper. I believe in my brother and friend Xi Jinping, and I believe in Chinese help."

1/
Seems a lot of this is based on China’s ability to provide the material goods needed to fight the crisis. 2/
Mar 10, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
China is emerging as a global public goods provider as the US proves unable and unwilling to lead.

This is an important development, and if the trend continues, it’s one with potentially serious consequences for the US role in the world. Yes, Italy will pay China for these supplies, but the fact China can uniquely provide them and is willing to do so during a time of scarcity has political implications as well.
Feb 11, 2020 • 12 tweets • 5 min read
I enjoyed this thoughtful piece by @stephenwertheim, but I might push back on (1) the idea that the great power competition [GPC] discourse is in service of US mil hegemony and on (2) some contradictory prescriptions for China policy.

foreignaffairs.com/articles/afgha…

A few thoughts: @stephenwertheim 1. The piece says "a flotilla of defense analysts have proposed a strategy of 'great-power competition," largely "in the service of maximizing Washington’s military power."

First, GPC is a fact of politics. No one wants GPC; they want strategies to cope with it.
Jan 15, 2020 • 14 tweets • 8 min read
Today's trade deal won't alleviate PRC fears of US financial statecraft.

So I'm excited to share a new piece with @NBRnews on Beijing's 10-year struggle against US financial power and its spread into state-backed digital currencies.

A few thoughts:

nbr.org/publication/ch… But first, the piece is adapted from a longer book chapter published by @NBRnews last year.

It also makes up one-half of a two-part series with Fed EVP Richard Dzina on financial statecraft and multipolarity.
Jan 9, 2020 • 16 tweets • 5 min read
Grateful to share this piece on China's info ops in Taiwan.

What happens in Taiwan matters, and I argue PRC efforts there are now going global.

The piece draws from a forthcoming Brookings report on China's worldwide info efforts.

A few key points:

foreignaffairs.com/articles/china… 1) SOPHISTICATED EFFORTS: PRC propaganda evokes block print posters and stilted jargon. It's much more serious, increasingly involving an elaborate campaign to shape information flows in ways both direct and covert, influencing not just the message but the medium itself.
May 15, 2019 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
Today, the Dutch government released its China strategy, which was in the works for a year. The full 100-page document hasn't been translated yet, but the summary and FM's speech on have been. They're sensible and fascinating.

A few highlights: 1/

government.nl/documents/poli… TOO CREDULOUS: The FM argues that the Dutch should not fear China, but adds that "perhaps we’ve sometimes been too innocent and credulous in the past." 2/
Apr 8, 2019 • 15 tweets • 4 min read
Excited to share our report from @CNASdc on China's Belt and Road!

We go beyond the usual cases (Sri Lanka, Maldives) to focus on 10 PRC projects across 7 regions & 6 sectors, from facial recognition in Zimbabwe to a wharf in Vanuatu. bit.ly/2Vw46BB

Some takeaways: 1/ FAIR STANDARDS: To assess BRI projects fairly, we used standards most would endorse. Projects should be:

1) Sovereignty-upholding
2) Transparent
3) Financially sustainable
4) Locally engaged
5) Geopolitically prudent
6) Environmentally sustainable
7) Corruption-resistant

2/
Nov 27, 2018 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
Not sure I agree, but @shifrinson raises an important question. Here are a few thoughts.

The implicit assumption here is that the US has done provocative things and China has done proactive things, therefore there's a spiral. But isn't this view missing something? 1/ A spiral presumes not only actions but intentions and reasoning. For a spiral to exist, one side's provocations must be the reason the other side acts provocatively, and on it goes iteratively. 2/
Jul 2, 2018 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
A leaked Chinese propaganda guidance obtained by @CDT provides some very unique insights about PRC preferences, strategy, and public opinion management for the US-China trade war. Everyone should read it. Here are 6 quick takeaways:

chinadigitaltimes.net/2018/06/minitr… 1) The guidance suggests the PRC wants to frame the trade war to its people as US-led containment:

"The trade conflict is really a war against China’s rise, to see who has the greater stamina. This is absolutely no time for irresolution or reticence."