US urged to do more against rising China threat

The US ought to ratchet up its calls for of China to incorporate equal entry for firms and media, stricter monitoring of Beijing’s actions on the UN and preventive motion to safeguard American pursuits in know-how and finance, a bipartisan panel instructed Congress on Tuesday.

A 575-page report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, created by Congress to trace and anticipate threats from China, characterised the world’s second-largest financial system as a menace to the present worldwide order that has American values at its core. And it mentioned China’s leaders view these values as a barrier to the nation’s exterior ambitions and an existential menace to their rule.

“Chinese leaders’ assessment of the United States as a dangerous and firmly committed opponent has informed nearly every facet of China’s diplomatic strategy, economic policy, and military planning in the post-Cold War era,” the panel mentioned.

Amid a seamless US effort to roll again China’s dominance in next-generation 5G communications, the function of know-how emerges as a transparent theme all through the annual report. The examine mentioned Beijing makes use of the institution of technical requirements as a option to “advance an alternative technological order.”

It additionally warned that China’s effort at monetary opening was a part of a “calculated strategy” to safe international funding inflows and use them to shore up the home financial system. This would improve publicity to distinctive dangers in China’s monetary system for international buyers, the report mentioned.

“China is an adversary presenting unique and immediate threats to our economic and security interests,” Robin Cleveland, chairman of the fee, mentioned in a gap assertion. Cleveland mentioned the report mirrored “an understanding that the challenges posed by the Chinese Communist Party are not partisan – they are American concerns.”

The evaluation additionally checked out areas together with navy capabilities, commerce relations, public well being and Covid-19-related points, in addition to Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Beijing’s nationwide safety legislation for the previous British colony had “significantly compromised” the rule of legislation and press freedom, the report discovered. “Under growing pressure from the CCP, the territory’s judicial system has been thrown into crisis as judges are compelled to adopt mainland legal principles and CCP positions,” the report mentioned, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.

An announcement from Hong Kong’s authorities described the report as “yet another example” of US interference in Hong Kong’s affairs, utilizing “democracy and self-determination as an excuse.” The assertion continued, saying “such groundless and unjust political maneuvers will achieve nothing but undermining Hong-Kong-US relations and hurting the US’s own interests.”

Competition between the US and China had intensified below the management of President Xi Jinping, the authors wrote, and so they argued that the time for motion is now.

“If Beijing succeeds in normalizing its views of governance, the result could undermine individual rights around the world,” the fee mentioned. “Underestimating Beijing’s intent to revise the international order based on its current capabilities risks delaying a response until it is already too late to preserve the liberal international order.”

The report makes 19 suggestions, highlighting 10 of these as being of “particular significance.”