U.S. at vital turning point with China.

• Position: Worldview

The new presidential Administration must reassess U.S. policy toward China, a group of prominent China specialists conclude in a Task Force on U.S.-China Policy report. Convened by the 21st Century China Center at the University of California, San Diego, School of Global Policy and Strategy and the New York-based Asia Society Center for U.S.-China Relations, the report provides high-level policymakers in the U.S. with a set of recommendations for navigating future relations between the two countries.

"We are at a critical moment for our two nations, a moment that calls for our government and the public to reassess and reexamine policy toward China," says Shirk, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State during the Clinton Administration and professor emeritus and chair of the 21st Century China Program at UC-SD. 'We are confident our recommendations will support a stable relationship that is in America's interests and help the U.S. maintain an active, positive presence in the Asia-Pacific."

The task force, co-chaired by Shirk and Orville Schell, director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations and former dean at the University of California, Berkeley, includes former government officials, scholars, and think-tank researchers, many of whom have served under both political parties and every U.S. president since Richard Nixon.

The report says contentious issues such as regional maritime disputes, trade and investment practices, human rights, and cyberespionage risk undermining the overall relationship, despite cooperative successes in areas such as climate change and nuclear proliferation in Iran.

The Administration's challenge is to formulate "a revised U.S. strategy that addresses these growing concerns about China's actions without unduly damaging the benefits the U.S. stands to gain from cooperating in areas where interests still converge," the report says.

In its first year, the Administration will confront six high-priority issues in U.S.-China policy, the task force coauthors state. Insufficient attention or missteps in dealing with these issues could undermine...