Romney urges classified State Department China strategy; deputy says work is underway

Senator Mitt Romney urged the State Department on Monday to produce a classified, comprehensive strategy to address an "emerging China," saying last year’s amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act requires the department to do so and that the statutory 60-day update requested by lawmakers has passed.

"It is essential in my view that we develop that kind of strategy and that it's kept in a classified setting," Romney said, listing areas the plan should cover — from trade and research-and-development investments to military procurement, university access, visas, social media strategy, raw-material processing and the role of USAID.

Romney said he and Sen. Bob Menendez authored the amendment and that he and Ranking Member Jim Risch had asked the administration for an update after 60 days. He urged the State Department to convene an advisory panel of outside experts (he cited the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution as examples), to lay out the options the department considered and to brief committee leadership on the conclusions.

"Bringing them together and doing the deep work on each one is incredibly time consuming, but we are doing that work," an unnamed deputy secretary responded, saying the department is working on the tactical areas Romney identified and consults outside experts regularly. The official cited the department’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board and an international security board and said the department does not have a single, dedicated China-focused council but seeks to integrate tactics into an overall strategy and to tailor approaches by country.

Another senator said they had joined Romney on the amendment and urged a detailed briefing for members about how the department is meeting the law’s requirements and who is advising the effort. The exchange concluded with the committee hearing moving on to its next business.

The hearing transcript shows lawmakers pressing for both classified and public clarity on how the State Department will convert stated principles — Secretary Antony Blinken’s "invest, align, and compete" framework — into coordinated tactics and measurable policies. The department’s representative emphasized ongoing work and consultation but did not provide a public timeline for when a consolidated, classified strategy would be available to committee members.