By Mel Gurtov
Targeting China
“China Week” sounds like a time for celebrating Chinese culture and food. But for Republicans in the House of Representatives, it’s all about politics. They seem to think that targeting China will play well in the elections, so they went all out with over two dozen pieces of legislation last week.
Democrats joined them on some votes. Voting to punish China is a safe bet. “The best way to get something done in Washington is to frame it” on China or national security, said Rory Murphy, who recently left his position as vice-president of government affairs at the US-China Business Council. “There’s no political consequence to being too tough on China,” he added.
House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana previewed the bills in a speech in July, saying China posed “the greatest threat to global peace” and that “Congress must keep our focus on countering China with every tool at our disposal.” This is Cold War II language, though different from the Russia-bashing of earlier times in one key respect: China is not just a key strategic adversary, it is a provider of important goods—human as well as financial and mineral resources.
The Bills
Here are the bills that passed in the House:
- The Biosecurity Act, to prevent US federal agencies from contracting with five Chinese biotech companies and their clients. It would also establish an inter-agency process for identifying additional companies. Biotech executives argued that decoupling from the firms would contribute to widespread US drug shortages. The House therefore extended the deadline to January 2032 for halting existing contracts with those Chinese firms.
- The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Certification Act would close Hong Kong’s representative offices in the US. In a nearly unanimous vote, the House decided to show solidarity with pro-democracy protesters in HK by closing these offices, which mainly seek to promote trade.
- A bill requiring Senate ratification of any World Health Organization agreement on pandemic preparedness. Republican defenders of the bill argue that American “self-determination” is at issue here, meaning “don’t allow an international agency to dictate masking or vaccinations.”
- Revival of the China Initiative, a failed justice department and FBI program designed to catch mainly ethnic Chinese American science researchers who allegedly stole secrets for China. President Biden abandoned the program amidst charges of racial profiling of innocent researchers. Only one academic, non-Chinese by the way, was ever successfully prosecuted under the China Initiative, but the lives of a number of Chinese American scientists were badly disrupted.
- A bill to bar people who purchase electric vehicles that contain parts made or assembled by an entity of China, Russia, North Korea or Iran from receiving tax credits.
- A bill to restrict the sale of agricultural land to foreign nationals from China, as well as Russia, North Korea and Iran. Here again, immigrants with no ill intentions would be caught up in this bill, while nationals from Saudi Arabia, who have bought land in Arizona and helped create a water crisis, would not be affected. This bill would also withhold certain federal funds from universities partnering with Beijing-backed research institutes—another dragnet like the China Initiative.
- A bill to restrict federal funding of colleges that are home to Confucius Institutes, on the argument that these Chinese-funded culture and language programs (according to a Texas Republican) have conducted “widespread military espionage inside the United States.” That charge has been investigated thoroughly and found to be without foundation.
- Still other bills would prevent government purchases of Chinese-made batteries and drone equipment.
Weak Bills, But Still Harmful
To some Democrats, the Republicans approved the wrong bills. What they ought to have passed, said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), ranking member of the House Select Committee on China, is bills to really improve the US economy. “Nothing to repair our industrial supply base, nothing on critical minerals and nothing to fix our legal immigration system to enhance our competitiveness, nothing to invest in science and innovation and nothing to upgrade the skills of our workforce,” Krishnamoorthi said. “And so China week becomes a nothing-burger without those types of initiatives.” Even a bill to close a loophole that has permitted the import of fentanyl was not proposed by the House leadership. What he might have added is that some of those bills cut off our nose to spite our face.
Needless to say, China is protesting the House bills. The Chinese embassy calls them a “new McCarthyism” that “interfere in China’s internal affairs, infringe upon China’s sovereignty, and smear China’s image.” The embassy spokesperson said in a statement on Friday that passage of that legislation “will cause serious interference to China-US relations … and will inevitably damage the US’s own interests, image, and credibility.”
The primary purpose of these bills is to demonstrate that the Republican Party is the only one that can be trusted to confront China and defend national security. But all the bills will have to pass in the Democratic-controlled Senate to become law. Few will; but if Trump wins in November, and Republicans take control of Congress, look for most of the bills to reappear as part of a major economic decoupling from China, justified by an exaggeration of the China threat.
Mel Gurtov, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Portland State University and blogs at In the Human Interest.