One of the most important foreign policy issues facing the U.S. is just how we plan to engage with China. But if this week is anything to go on, the debate ahead of 2020 won’t be a nuanced attempt to navigate a shifting geopolitical landscape but a romp through simplistic narratives.

In public statements on China this week both Joe Biden, the 2020 Democratic front-runner, and Kiron Skinner, the director of policy planning in Trump’s State Department, demonstrated profound misunderstandings of China, history, and current affairs.