US lawmakers urged to put ‘reciprocity’ at heart of China relationship

Name: Beijing noodle restaurant celebrates US election win for Joe Biden and invites him back
Uploaded: 2020-12-01T15:30:05.000Z
Duration: 2 min 28 s
Description: Beijing noodle restaurant celebrates US election win for Joe Biden and invites him back

Congressional advisory body recommends continuation of Trump administration’s policy towards Beijing

More than a dozen recommendations call for a more aggressive approach from Washington in US-China relations

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The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission has recommended a continuation of President Donald Trump’s aggressive stance towards China in its latest report. Photo: AFP

Owen Churchill

Published: 11:30pm, 1 Dec 2020Updated: 10:54am, 2 Dec 2020

United States lawmakers should place the principle of “reciprocity” at the heart of all future legislation relating to the US-China relationship, a congressional advisory body said on Tuesday, echoing a tactic that has defined the Trump administration’s aggressive China policy over the past four years.

In particular, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) said legislators should push for greater reciprocity in areas including the treatment of journalists, market access for internet companies, the ability of non-governmental organisations to engage with civil society and diplomats’ freedom of travel.

The call from the USCC, a panel that monitors the national security implications of Washington’s relationship with China, was among more than a dozen recommendations for a more aggressive China policy in the face of what it considered an increasingly assertive Beijing.

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Beijing noodle restaurant celebrates US election win for Joe Biden and invites him back

The Chinese Communist Party had systematically sought to “hollow out global governance institutions, suppress internal opposition, subjugate free peoples in Hong Kong and around China’s periphery, dominate global economic resources and project military power”, the panel said in its annual report.

“These efforts threaten vital interests of the United States and the security and vitality of an increasing number of countries around the globe,” it said.

Beijing has previously accused the panel of an “entrenched” bias against China, and has denied visas to commission members seeking to conduct on-the-ground research in the country.

The coronavirus pandemic made such travel an impossibility for USCC staff, who based their findings on media reports, the testimony of more than 60 experts at public hearings and classified briefings by federal officials.

The nearly 600-page report comes on the heels of a particularly turbulent 12 months for US-China relations, with tensions flaring over Hong Kong, the coronavirus health crisis, the South China Sea, Chinese technology companies and the treatment of ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang.