SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. think tank leader has called for more diplomatic engagement between the United States and China while Washington rethinks its national interests at a time of drastic geopolitical change, a Stanford newsletter said in its latest edition.

Stanford Report, a newsletter delivering news about the university community via email, said Michele Flournoy, co-founder of the think tank Center for a New American Security (CNAS) based in Washington, D.C., believed the United States should rethink its national strategy amid unprecedented geopolitical and technological change globally.

Flournoy, who was undersecretary of defense for policy in the U.S. President Barack Obama administration, said the United States needs cooperation with China on a host of issues such as climate change, nuclear nonproliferation, the Korean Peninsula and even Iran.

In a recent lecture at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation, Flournoy said it's not possible for Washington to take a containment approach toward China.

She noted that any broader anti-China measures including cutting off all Chinese investment in U.S. tech companies, as some people had championed in Washington, would result in depletion of funding for those American firms.

"We need an affirmative agenda and a much more deeply engaged diplomatic relationship with China," she said.