Kiron Skinner, the State Department’s director of policy planning, made a statement supposedly to point out the lack of diversity in foreign policy circles that many are calling racist. Skinner, who is Black, said at the Future Security Forum that countering “the long-term threat” of China is difficult because the country is “not Caucasian,” adding that this is so because
“The comments come as concerns over espionage, both traditional and economic, have seen Chinese academics and other citizens report problems obtaining visas and racial profiling in the U.S.,” Newsweek reported.
“When we think about the Soviet Union in that competition [the Cold War], in a way, it was a fight within the Western family,” she said. “This is a fight with a really different civilization, and a different ideology, and the United States hasn’t had that before. Nor has it had an economic competitor the way that we have. The Soviet Union was a country with nuclear weapons and the Red Army but a backwards economy.
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“In China we have an economic competitor, we have an ideological competitor, one that really does seek a kind of global reach that many of us didn’t expect a couple of decades ago. And I think it’s also striking that it’s the first time that we will have a great power competitor that is not Caucasian,” Skinner added.
“I think it’s extremely relevant because the foreign policy establishment is so narrowly defined, it’s more homogenous than probably it should be, given our own demographics,” Skinner said, adding that international relations “hasn’t changed very much.” “Having diversity in all dimensions really does help you get ready for the future.”
The remarks about China not being “Caucasian” didn’t sit well with many.
“Our foreign policy is not based on race,” Cheng Li, the director of the Brooking Institution’s John L. Thornton China Center, told Newsweek. The expert on U.S.-China relations said focusing on race or ethnicity is “un-American” and undermines the focus on much larger differences between the two countries such as differences in political systems and ideologies.
While Li added that the statements alienate people with Chinese ethnic background in China and outside China, including Chinese Americans, he did agree with Skinner on the need for diversity within foreign policy circles.
