US Congress panel says tackling China defines next century

WASHINGTON: The US Congress must act urgently to counter the economic and national security threats posed by the Chinese government, a bipartisan chorus of lawmakers on a newly created special House committee has warned.

The two superpowers were locked in an "existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st century", the committee's Republican chairman, Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, said as the rivalry between the US and China deepens.

With democracy advocates and protesters in attendance, the panel -- formally the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party -- began its work at a precarious moment for Washington-Beijing relations, reports the Guardian.

It comes weeks after a suspected Chinese spy balloon traversed the continental US and amid intelligence that Beijing is considering providing lethal weapons to aid Russia in its ongoing war against Ukraine.

Meanwhile, China's militarisation and aggression toward Taiwan, a self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own, as well as its response to the coronavirus pandemic, have further escalated tensions.

Underscoring the broad range of challenges the panel hopes to address, lawmakers peppered the witnesses with questions on human rights abuses, trade policies, the influence of TikTok, aggression in Taiwan, the origins of Covid-19 and international espionage, The Guardian reported.

Gallagher hopes the committee will help shape China policy and legislation that can win support from both parties.

But with the 2024 presidential campaign looming, and Republicans eager to paint Joe Biden as "weak on China", the possibility of bipartisan action is likely to become increasingly narrow, reports the Guardian.

"Time is not on our side," he said, imploring a bitterly divided Congress to come together to confront China. "Our policy over the next 10 years will set the stage for the next hundred.".

Illinois Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, the ranking Indian-American Democrat on the panel, echoed Gallagher's sense of urgency.

He said Democrats and Republicans had for years "underestimated" the Chinese government, believing that economic integration would "inevitably lead to democracy".

But it did not and now the US needed to move quickly to pursue economic and trade policies that would "up our game" as Americans to compete with China, the Guardian reported.

"We do not want a war within the PRC," he said, referring to the People's Republic of China, "not a cold war, not a hot war. We don't want a clash of civilizations".