For nine months under President Joe Biden, the U.S. has pursued a diplomatic strategy that could be characterized as about China, without China.

The CIA says it will create a top-level working group on China as part of a broad U.S. government effort focused on countering Beijing’s influence.

In announcing the changes, the CIA director referred to "increasingly adversarial Chinese government" as the "most important geopolitical threat we face in the 21st centu...