The United States Department of State’s “Office of China Coordination” (OCC), responsible for strategic affairs with China, has appointed Joshua Young as its new head. This hawkish figure has previously urged that the U.S. President must personally lead and respond to the Cold War initiated by the Chinese Communist Party.
The “China House” project was initiated by the Biden administration in December 2022 and is under the jurisdiction of the State Department’s Bureau of East Asian Affairs.
Following Secretary of State Rubio’s restructuring and downsizing of the State Department, Young will directly report to the Deputy Secretary of State, Allison Hooker, who is considered the “number 3 person” at the Department. Previously, the coordinator of the China House project only reported to the Assistant Secretary for Asia.
According to a report by the Nikkei newspaper on Friday, this restructuring is likely aimed at expediting the implementation of White House directives, as Rubio currently also serves as Trump’s national security advisor. One of the primary tasks of the China House project this year is to prepare for a possible visit by the President to China.
Before joining the State Department, Young served as the CEO of the “2049 Project Institute.” During Trump’s first term, Young worked at the Pentagon under then-Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Randy Schriver.
Randy Schriver, who currently serves as the Chairman of the Institute for Indo-Pacific Security, told the Nikkei newspaper that Young is skilled at interagency coordination. During his tenure at the “2049 Project,” he examined U.S.-China competition from economic and trade perspectives and pondered on how to broaden the toolbox and adopt more optimized trade and economic strategies to counter Beijing effectively.
In 2024, Young participated in co-authoring an article offering suggestions to then President Biden, urging him to take a leading role in the Cold War initiated by the CCP and to formulate a comprehensive proactive economic strategy.
In the jointly written article, it was stated, “The United States is in a Cold War with the People’s Republic of China. To succeed, proactive leadership from the President is urgently needed. Without such leadership, Washington’s China policy will remain fragmented, self-contradictory, and lacking focus… (Xi Jinping, the CCP leader, outlined in the 20th CCP Congress in 2022) a directive for China to engage in a ‘prolonged war’ with the United States, in other words, a Cold War.”
Young’s appointment is also seen as relieving the burden on the former China House coordinator, Kevin Kim. Kim, who is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, and Taiwan Affairs, previously served as the head of the China House project.
Bonnie Glaser, Director of the Indo-Pacific Program at the German Marshall Fund, told the Nikkei that Rubio will lead the preparations for Trump’s visit to China in his capacity as national security advisor. Additionally, Treasury Secretary Besent and Commerce Secretary Lutek are expected to play important roles in the preparation for the trade negotiations.
According to sources cited by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post on Saturday, President Trump’s planned visit to China in September has been canceled, but a meeting with Xi Jinping is possible during the APEC summit scheduled for October 30 to November 1 in South Korea.
The South China Morning Post reported earlier that the CCP planned to invite Trump to attend a military parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of the victory in World War II on September 3 in Beijing.