US displays hostility while asking China for cooperation

Twenty hours ahead of the first meeting between top Chinese and US leaders on climate change, an issue that will most likely see cooperation between China and the US, politicians in Washington stepped up their bipartisan efforts to counter China by pushing three bills calling for strategic competition with China and sanctions over Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

China expressed its explicit and strong opposition to the latest US acts. Chinese observers warned that the US should not dream of containing China economically, militarily and politically to maintain its dominant position. Creating confrontation will backfire against the US and it should cast aside its hegemonic dream and Cold War mentality. Such a self- contradicting practice that mixes hostility with a cooperative attitude could impact potential China- US cooperation.

The US Strategic Competition Act of 2021 was backed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a Wednesday meeting, with the committee adding dozens of amendments including a boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics by officials not athletes, Reuters reported Thursday.

The 280- page draft bill touched upon topics including investment to allies and international partners, foreign military funding of up to $ 655 million in the Indo- Pacific through 2022- 26, as well as budgets to safeguard values with reference to China’s

Hong Kong and Xinjiang, according to the US Congress website. On the same day, the House’s foreign affairs panel unanimously passed the draft of the H. R. 1155 Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and a condemnation resolution over Xinjiang. The “forced labor” act, in addition to sanctions on officials and diplomatic methods, included a “rebuttable presumption,” that is, all products produced in Xinjiang are to be seen as “forced labor” products unless sufficient evidence proves the opposite.

Those bills came at a time when China and the US are figuring out ways to cooperate regarding climate change, signaling that a confrontational facet in the US’ China policy is fermenting and the spread of the political virus continues, observers said.

“Climate change is not an issue that could help realize sustainable China- US cooperation because Republicans will abandon or overturn Biden’s policy on the issue if it wins the election again in the future,” Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations at the China Foreign Affairs University, said Thursday.

Yuan Zheng, deputy director of the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Thursday that seeking cooperation and confrontation simultaneously shows the US’ logic that “harsh crackdowns force China to concede and cooperate.”

Lü Xiang, an expert on US studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said on Thursday that China will stay calm and focus on the big picture, seeking possible cooperation but not fearing competition.

Competition model

China’s National People’s Congress ( NPC) Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday voiced strong opposition to the US’ strategic competition act, which is brimming with a Cold War mentality and ideological bias, distorting and slandering China’s development, internally and externally.

The bill deliberately created an ideological confrontation and engaged in a zero- sum game. It is harmful for world peace, stability and development, and leads to nowhere, said You Wenze, spokesperson of the NPC committee.

China and the US, if engaging in competition, should compete in a fair and orderly manner. China proposes nonconfrontational relations of mutual respect with the US, while firmly safeguarding its national sovereignty, security and development interests, the spokesperson said.

China does not avoid talking about competition with the US, but it should be virtuous, not a “life- or- death struggle.” Unfortunately, “the Trump administration started the destructive competition and the Biden administration is continuing it,” Lü said.

Observers pointed out that a Cold War mentality is so deeply rooted in the US politics that they can only think of “a competitor as an enemy.” Being No. 1 in the world in many areas for decades has also embedded “America First” into not only the political establishment, but also the entirety of society. Lü said the US cannot accept the possibility of falling into second place and has spared no effort in making this competition favorable to the US, including unfounded “forced labor” smearing on Xinjiang and attacks on Hong Kong.