BEIJING: On April 21, after hours of debate and several amendments, the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations voted 21-1 in approval of the Bill to Address Issues Involving the People’s Republic of China, also known as the Strategic Competition Act of 2021.
The over 280-page bill was based on the Strengthening Trade, Regional Alliances, Technology, and Economic and Geopolitical Initiatives Concerning China Act proposed by Jim Risch, then Chairman of the committee, and three other Republican senators in July 2020.
As the Republicans lost control of the Senate after the 2020 elections, Democrat Robert Menendez took over the panel’s chairmanship and proposed the new bill.
At an earlier hearing, Menendez had already stressed that the right basic framework for thinking about the U.S.-China relationship would be that of “strategic competition,” entailing a new set of organizing principles to address “the challenges of this new era.”
The U.S. legislation accuses China of leveraging its political, diplomatic, economic, military, technological and ideological powers to challenge the interests and values shared by the U.S. and its partners. In doing so, the U.S. claims that China is jeopardizing the rules-based international order characterized by freedom.
According to this act, China’s objectives are to “first establish regional hegemony over the Indo-Pacific” and subsequently use that dominant position to propel it to become the world’s “leading power.” Based on this, China would redefine international laws and regulations and encourage other countries to follow its governance model, the bill states.
Going by this assessment, the bill sets several objectives for the U.S., one of which is to sustain its global leadership role by leveraging its tools for long-term political, economic, technological, and military competition with China.
– The Daily Mail-Beijing Review News exchange item
