CNN January 12, 2023 Republicans and Democrats unite on competition with China

 

January 12, 2023       Stephen Collinson, Caitlin Hu and Shelby Rose

Republicans and Democrats unite on competition with China Angry divisions that will tear Washington apart in the next two years of divided government are already obvious, as the new Republican House moves fast to consolidate power and line up its number one target in the White House. But there is one thing that both sides believe -- that China poses a multi-front competitive threat to the United States. So a rare bipartisan majority in the House has voted to empower a select committee on "Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party."   The panel will examine issues including protecting US intellectual property, puling supply chains out of China and repatriating jobs. It is also likely to be a driving force in investigating TikTok, the social media app owned by Chinese internet giant ByteDance, which some Republicans want banned. The app is already prohibited on many federal and state government phones, due to fears Chinese intelligence could use it for spying. Wisconsin Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher, who will chair the new committee, said the challenge posed to US economic and national security is now acute. “The CCP’s aggression is not limited to Taiwan, the South China Sea, Hong Kong, or even Xinjiang, where two successive administrations, Republican and Democratic alike, have determined that the CCP is engaging in genocide,” Gallagher told the House this week. “We see this aggression here at home where the party has stolen American intellectual property, technology, and industrial capacity undermining our economy and good-paying American jobs. It is here at home where the party’s extraterritorial totalitarianism terrorizes Chinese students studying at our universities and targets Americans of Chinese descent. And it is here at home where thousands of Americans are poisoned each year by fentanyl precursors manufactured in China.” With apologies to Russian President Vladimir Putin, China is the most nettlesome foreign policy question facing the United States early in the 21st century. Leader Xi Jinping’s increasingly nationalistic leadership, China’s fast growing military forces and its rising willingness to project global power pose an undeniable challenge to American dominance. So perhaps figuring out America's stance in response now is exactly what Congress -- which often struggles to do anything of substance -- should be doing. But there are already some warning signs.  If the committee turns into the usual Washington bear pit where each party attacks the other, it could backfire by making China policy even more contentious. There is also a long history of congressional committees failing to control their own power.   Some critics worry we could be watching the start of a new anti-Chinese witch-hunt that recalls the era of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who used his committee chairmanships in the 1950s to purge communists -- real and imagined -- in politics, media, business and Hollywood. A spike in hate crimes against Americans with Asian or Pacific Island heritage during the Covid-19 pandemic (dubbed by ex-President Donald Trump as the “China virus”) has already demonstrated the devastating consequences that can flow from alarmist rhetoric.   “This committee cannot be used to promote policies that result in the racial profiling of Asian Americans but should directly focus on specific concerns related to the Government of the People’s Republic of China,” said California Democratic Rep Judy Chu, chair of the congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.   There’s also the question of how the new committee will be seen in Beijing, where the view that the US wants to keep China down is already pervasive and is often used a rallying tool by the Beijing leadership. The House's new speaker, Kevin McCarthy (no relation to the anti-communist firebrand of the 20th century), beseeched Democrats on Tuesday to believe that the committee will be non-partisan. “We want serious lawmakers. This isn’t for somebody to go in and be viral because they want to make some point,” he said.   Wow. If this is really the case, this will be a unique committee indeed.

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The world and America Russia has replaced its top general overseeing the war in Ukraine.   Japan's passport has again been ranked the most powerful for travel.   A dual British-Iranian citizen was sentenced to death for spying for UK.   Meanwhile in America, US President Joe Biden's lawyers found even more classified documents.    An FAA computer system outage delayed over 8,000 flights.   And the US is strengthening its military ties with Japan.

Surveillance footage at a Minnesota butcher shop captured a deer breaking through the glass door and barreling into the store. (WDAY/Surveillance Video)

What else are neighbors for? Panama, finding itself in possession of a veritable mountain of cocaine recently, has shipped 55.7 tons of the drug to the US to be destroyed, local authorities announced on Wednesday.   Destroying seized drugs is a service that the US sometimes performs for neighbors in the region. Panama previously sent 40 tons of cocaine to Philadelphia for destruction in August 2022, according to the Panamanian Ministry of Public Security.    The deliveries are designed to ensure that the narcotic is destroyed properly, per a cooperation agreement between the two countries, reports CNNE's Elizabeth Gonzalez.   "Panama's Minister of Public Security, Juan Manuel Pino, said that currently his country does not have a drug incinerator, which is why it is one of the priority projects. And he assured that the transfer of the shipment was made under a logistics that allows attesting to its destruction," she wrote.

Thanks for reading.   On Thursday, Peruvian protestors are expected to march again to capital city Lima, as the country's bloody political unrest continues.