Lawmakers have introduced nearly 275 measures this session, while bureaucrats are busy using the CCP to justify ballooning budgets.
by Blaise Malley, Responsible Statecraft
The 118th Congress has been underway for about three months, and at least one thing is already clear — across both parties, many committees, and a whole host of issues touching virtually all aspects of American life — China is the hottest issue on the Hill right now.
The first hearings of the session are often indicative of overarching priorities for the upcoming term. In 2023, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the Financial Services Committee, and the House subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, part of the Judiciary committee, all held their initial hearings on some aspect of strategic competition with China. Within a week of their swearing-in, a large majority of members voted to establish the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, to much media fanfare.
Since then, subcommittees in HFAC, as well as Homeland Security, Coronavirus, Ways and Means, and Oversight committees have followed suit, in one way or another, in raising the China specter.
Not surprisingly, many of these hearings have been full of fear-mongering, depicting the Chinese Communist Party as an existential threat rather than actually grappling with the genuine challenges and legitimate concerns now facing the U.S.-China relationship.
Recent Posts
Don’t Despair: Trump Isn’t Invincible
November 12, 2024
Take Action NowDonald Trump’s reelection is awful, but wallowing in misery only benefits his far-right agenda — and risks squandering the…
There Was No “Pogrom” In Amsterdam
November 12, 2024
Take Action NowThe far right is fanning the flames of conflict.By Mira Oklobdzija, Foreign Policy In FocusIn early…
It’s Time For Corporate Democrats To Face Their Failures
November 12, 2024
Take Action NowThe corporate wing of the Democratic Party has failed to achieve the electoral success it once promised with Bill Clinton…
Biden’s Middle East Legacy Is One Of Abject Failure
November 11, 2024
Take Action NowBiden’s Gaza policy has left the larger Middle East in flames.By Juan Cole, Tom DispatchPresident…