This relates to a ninth point: Be ready to extend the olive branch. America won’t succeed over a short or a long competition without exerting a lot of pressure. The United States must repeatedly frustrate Beijing’s attempts at expansion; it must make China pay dearly for attempts to upend the status quo. But the goal of competition is not to remain in a state of tension forever; it is to achieve a better status quo. Doing so, in the context of rivalry with a nuclear-armed great power, may eventually require holding a hard line with a soft touch.
