Julian Gewirtz was a senior policymaker in the Biden administration, serving as senior director for China and Taiwan Affairs at the National Security Council, the senior advisor to the principal deputy national security advisor, and deputy China coordinator at the State Department. He’s also an Oxford-trained historian who wrote two books about the Deng Xiaoping era before entering government. In his spare time, he writes poetry and has published a book of poems. We spoke recently in New York.