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On Balance | US congressional hearings’ anti-China grandstanding means important messages are getting lost
- Outstanding witnesses are struggling to be heard amid the antics by some committee members
- With over three months before Congress’ summer recess, expect to see more such behaviour in the name of countering China that ends up achieving the opposite
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I had to look at the tweet three times. “HAPPENING NOW: The fate of the Indo-Pacific hangs in the balance as members of the Select Committee engage in a fictional war game to decide the American response to the Chinese Communist Party’s 2027 invasion of Taiwan.”
At first glance, it appeared to be a post spoofing the House Select Committee on the CCP. The second one, after seeing the account was verified, was to look for signs that it was hacked. After all, Elon Musk didn’t seem to care too much about how firing large portions of Twitter’s staff would compromise account security. The third was to allow the message to sink in, which took a while.
Most of the committee’s members have no active military duty on their resumes, which gives this game of make-believe battlefield in front of the cameras a farcical tint. Representative Mike Gallagher, a Republican, and Democratic Representative Seth Moulton are former US Marines, which should only make us wonder how much respect they have for the Pentagon, where US government war gaming should be going on.
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As General Charles Brown said earlier this year, speculation about when military conflict in the Taiwan Strait might break out “is not necessarily helpful”. Note to the committee: giving the Communist Party the US government’s operating assumptions undermines your mission.
The spectacle reminded me of a scene in the classic 1991 black comedy Barton Fink. After the outbreak of World War II, a self-absorbed Hollywood producer played by Michael Lerner dons a heavily medalled military uniform provided by his studio’s costume department to show his patriotism. Dr Strangelove also makes an easy comparison.
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For all its comic value, the message appeared to be a fitting conclusion to a week of more than a dozen Congressional hearings about China or issues in which the country figured prominently. It should alert us that key messages which would be helpful in countering Beijing are getting lost. Outstanding witnesses often struggle to be heard amid the anti-China grandstanding by some committee members.
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