US senators announced a major cross-party effort on Wednesday to combat China’s growing global influence by limiting the flow of investment and state-of-the-art technology to the Asian giant, while deterring any potential threat to Taiwan.
The push comes after US President Joe Biden signed a package last year aimed at boosting competition with Washington’s main economic rival, with US$52 billion in new subsidies for microchip manufacturing and scientific research.
Launching the latest legislative drive in the Democratic-led Senate, US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer framed the fight to rein in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as an epochal struggle.
Photo: AFP
“The Chinese government is not constraining itself in its pursuit to dominate the 21st century, and if we in America were to rest on our laurels, if we let the CCP beat us, it would have serious consequences for the world’s democratic nations,” he said.
“The United States cannot afford to cede its leadership to governments opposed to democracy and individual liberty. We cannot let authoritarianism call the shots in the 21st century,” he added.
Schumer and 11 of his most senior lieutenants held a news conference to outline a five-step plan aimed at addressing competition from China, which has seen its economy grow more than 10-fold since the turn of the century.
One element of the push would be proposals to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, the global leader in manufacturing high-end microchips.
Schumer did not offer specifics, but said the plan would build on bipartisan proposals from the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which last year approved US$4.5 billion for Taipei’s defense over four years and affirmed Biden’s power to levy sanctions on Chinese officials and financial institutions involved in actions against the nation.
The New York Democrat said lawmakers would look at export controls and sanctions limiting Beijing’s ability to acquire — “and even steal” — US innovations in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and other advanced tech.
The US Department of the Treasury and the US Department of Commerce would get new authority to screen and halt the flow of cash to China’s high-tech industries, he added.
The drive would also look at assisting small business, building a US workforce “for the future” and strengthening the process for assessing the national security implications of inward foreign investments.
Relations between Beijing and Washington have been declining steadily for years, with the rivals locking horns over trade, human rights and the origins of COVID-19.
Washington has also been a critic of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative — which has invested US$840 billion in roads, bridges, ports and hospitals in more than 150 nations over a decade — arguing that it lures poor countries into debt traps with huge, unaffordable loans.
Schumer said the US and its allies were ready to cooperate on providing an alternative infrastructure funding source that “actually benefits those countries looking for a helping hand.”
“Bottom line: Time is not on our side. The Xi regime is working every day to catch up and surpass the United States,” Schumer said. “There is no reason our two parties here in the Congress ... can’t come together and send a strong message to the Chinese government that we’re united in this pressing national security effort and we are committed to maintaining America’s lead in the future.”
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
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