In coronavirus-gripped Washington, rhetoric rises but anti-China bills stall

The 116th Congress will forever be best known for the impeachment of Donald Trump. But it will also go down as the most hawkish – and most prolific – Congress to date in its approach toward China.

There has been “far and away” more China-related legislation introduced during the current congressional session than, for example, there was counterterrorism legislation introduced in the 107th session following 9/11, noted Anna Ashton, who closely tracks movements on Capitol Hill in her work heading government affairs at the US-China Business Council.

But amid the coronavirus pandemic, as legislative priorities have pivoted abruptly to address the outbreak’s public health and economic fallout, the fate of about 300 bills and resolutions challenging Beijing is now in limbo.

“For the time being, and probably for the foreseeable future, Covid-19 is going to totally dominate what people are doing on the Hill,” said Ashton, a former China-focused intelligence officer at the Department of Defence.

Just weeks ago, before the coronavirus took hold in the US, lawmakers hoped that at least some legislation would join the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act – a symbolically powerful bill whose passage in November tested the limits of an already bruised US-China relationship.

After months of negotiations, legislation calling for stringent sanctioning of Chinese officials over alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang had won overwhelming approval in both the House of Representatives and Senate. Other bills, including one focused on Tibet, had passed in one of the two chambers.