Nathaniel C. Fick, the federal government’s inaugural ambassador at large for cyberspace and digital policy, has urged Americans to tone down the anti-China and anti-Russia tough talk on tech in order to establish better relations with nations that have yet to pick a side. Mr. Fick, on Thursday at a German Marshall Fund event, said it should not be all anti-Russia or anti-China, because there are many middle-ground states around the world, intentionally and historically unaligned states, where that message doesn’t resonate.

The administrative overhaul: Mr. Fick, who gained experience as a technology executive and entrepreneur in the cybersecurity and venture capital arenas, said the Biden administration has overhauled how the federal government teams with businesses on tech and cyber issues. He added that cyber and tech issues were not coordinated, integrated or elevated at the State Department before his arrival despite the good work of his predecessors.

Mr. Fick does not appear eager to join the domestic cyber policy food fight, and said his goals are focused on building the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, which he wants to have a basically trained cyber and digital policy staffer present in every mission in the world that matters within two years.

However, State and local officials have moved faster than the Biden administration on cyber policy, with nearly half of U.S. states enacting restrictions on TikTok for state officials’ devices amid concerns about the social media platform’s connections to China jeopardizing Americans’ data security and privacy.