Since it was created a year ago, the House Select Committee on China has produced a raft of proposals to get more aggressive against Beijing. 2024 will be the test of whether it can turn any of that into legislation.

The bipartisan committee was formed in January 2023 with the goal of better tackling national security threats from China. And it has been loud and ambitious in pursuing that goal.

Chair Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) has trashed President Joe Biden’s efforts to thaw relations as “zombie engagement” and slammed U.S. businesses that deal with China as accepting “golden blindfolds.” And the committee proposed a slate of 150 policy recommendations this month that would radically overhaul the U.S. economic and trade relationship with Beijing — including imposing a raft of new tariffs that some lawmakers argued would hobble the U.S. agriculture industry by blocking off its largest market.

But that aggressive approach to Beijing has sown internal divisions and dismayed some China experts who warn that the committee’s approach harms administration efforts to stabilize the U.S.-China relationship. And that may make finding consensus on legislation difficult.



The committee’s tone “has veered toward hyperbole, inflating China’s strengths and overlooking its handicaps and problems … in dealing with real security threats, we should be wielding scalpels, not machetes,” said Winston Lord, former assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

The original slate of recommendations — which

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‘Certain things require a machete’: House China Committee chair defends aggressive approach to Beijing

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31.12.2023

Since it was created a year ago, the House Select Committee on China has produced a raft of proposals to get more aggressive against Beijing. 2024 will be the test of whether it can turn any of that into legislation.

The bipartisan committee was formed in January 2023 with the goal of better tackling national security threats from China. And it has been loud and ambitious in pursuing that goal.

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© Politico


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