China denounces U.S. bill to boost competitiveness

Beijing has denounced the U.S. measure aimed at boosting U.S. technology to improve American competitiveness, calling it a thinly veiled attack on China’s political system and an attempt to hinder its development.

The Foreign Affairs Committee of China’s ceremonial legislature, the National People’s Congress, issued a scathing statement on Wednesday expressing its “strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition” to the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act. The bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate on Tuesday.

“This bill seeks to exaggerate and spread the so-called ‘China threat’ to maintain global American hegemony, using human rights and religion as excuses to interfere in China’s domestic politics, and deprive China of its legitimate development rights,” the statement said.

“No force should expect that China will swallow any bitter fruit that harms China’s sovereignty, security or development interests,” it said.

It echoed language used by President Xi Jinping, who has adopted an aggressive foreign policy that responds harshly to any perceived attacks on China’s reputation.

The statement also attacked provisions of the bill expressing support for Taiwan,

the self-governing island democracy that China claims as its own territory; references to Hong Kong, where Beijing is accused of rolling back democracy; and criticism of Chinese policy in the northwestern territory of Xinjiang, the site of mass detentions of minority Muslim groups.

Those and related issues are “purely China’s internal affairs and absolutely no foreign interference will be tolerated,” the statement said.

At a daily briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said China-related content in the bill was “full of Cold War zero-sum thinking “which “distorts the facts (and) smears China’s development path and domestic and foreign policies.”

“It is a matter for the U.S. itself as to how to develop and enhance its competitiveness. But we firmly oppose the U.S. making an issue of China and treating China as an imaginary enemy,” Wang said.

China has enacted various policy blueprints intended to enhance its competitiveness and build its prowess in advanced technologies. Such plans tend to be focused entirely on the economy and business, areas where the ruling Communist Party and government play a huge role.

The 68-32 Senate vote demonstrated how confronting China is a rate issue that can unite both parties in Congress at the time of intense partisan division.