The Chinese Communist Party represents the greatest national security threat that the United States has ever faced. And it will require a whole-of-government approach to beat Beijing in the new Cold War that is emerging. Unfortunately, at present, the U.S. government is working at cross-purposes.

Kathleen Hicks, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, recently embarked on a trip to the Hawaii headquarters of the United States Indo-Pacific Command and Pacific Fleet. Hicks’s visit was meant to demonstrate that the U.S. is "laser-focused on tackling the security challenges" presented by China . Such efforts are laudable and important. But they are being undercut elsewhere. While the Pentagon was seeking to reassure allies and demonstrate resolve, two top cabinet officials were, if unintentionally, undermining efforts to deter Beijing.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen just concluded a trip to China, urging new cooperation with Beijing. The U.S. and China, the Treasury Department said, need to "work together to address global challenges."

The problem with this language?

The greatest global challenge right now is the Chinese Communist Party itself, which is engaged in the largest military buildup in modern history, massive spying  operations on American soil, and threatening countries from Taiwan to Lithuania and beyond. China’s economic and military power dwarfs that of previous U.S. opponents, including Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

U.S. bureaucracies are failing to grasp the stakes, preferring instead to return to a failed status quo, in which the United States actively aided the rise of its chief geopolitical opponent. In recent weeks and months, both U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo have reached out to Beijing. Blinken visited China, while the Biden administration actively sought to downplay recent instances of CCP spying.

Tellingly, both Commerce and the State Department have emphasized their desire to restore economic ties with China. This runs counter to both common sense and sound strategy. Indeed, America’s economic reliance on China gives Beijing leverage and undercuts U.S. deterrence. The U.S. shouldn’t be working on bolstering its dependence on China, but the opposite. To effectively combat growing Chinese power, the many arms of the U.S. government need to be on the same page.

The U.S. won the last Cold War by doing just that. At the dawn of that multi-decade conflict, the various levers of power, from Congress to the many bureaucracies of the executive branch, agreed that the Soviet Union presented the greatest threat. And while sometimes differing in approach, there was widespread recognition that America needed to harness all its power to win. This was made possible thanks to leadership. The U.S. president at the time, Harry Truman, recognized that he had to mobilize popular opinion to confront the Soviet menace.

Truman knew that the American public was war-weary and asked a leading senator, Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan, for advice on how to obtain support for the Marshall Act, in which the United States sent considerable aid to Europe to stave off support for communism. "Mr. President, the only way you are ever going to get this is to make a speech and scare the hell out of the country," Vandenberg told Truman.

Similarly, our leaders must speak frankly about the threat posed by China. Fear mongering isn’t necessary; the truth is scary enough. The historic challenge presented by China’s rise demands nothing less.

The writer is a Washington D.C.-based foreign affairs analyst