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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

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

  • 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
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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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.

Biden faces pressure to hold hard line of defence against China

All the while, tariffs on billions of dollars worth of goods have remained in place since the Trump administration began a trade war in 2018.

Despite striking a phase one deal in January, friction on the economic front has grown throughout the year, amid executive actions to sanction Chinese firms implicated in suspected human rights abuses, further restrictions against Huawei Technologies and efforts to ban the Chinese-owned apps TikTok and WeChat.

Underpinning such moves has been the administration’s much touted principle of “reciprocity”, which has also seen it take executive action to restrict Chinese journalists working in the US and place limits on diplomats operating in the country.

Critics of such an approach have argued that an undue focus on reciprocity risks undermining the United States’ highly vaunted principles of an open market and a free press, while also failing to secure substantive change from Beijing.

Even the Trump administration’s own ambassador to Beijing, Terry Branstad, publicly acknowledged before stepping down in September that US efforts to balance the relationship had only succeeded in prompting further retaliation from the Chinese government.

Criticising the Trump administration’s fixation on reciprocity at a Bloomberg New Economy event last month, former US Treasury secretary Henry Paulson warned the US would “not remain competitive if we become more like China, with its closed, statist model”.

Once considered an outlier for its hawkish views on China, the USCC, whose recommendations are not binding, has in recent years become increasingly representative of a rising, overwhelmingly bipartisan consensus in Washington about the perceived need for stronger policies to counter Beijing.

Former Treasury secretary calls for ‘targeted reciprocity’ in US-China trade

Alongside its calls for greater reciprocity in China-related legislation, the USCC said lawmakers should also establish a “Manhattan Project”-like effort to bolster US self-sufficiency in the medical industry, and direct the Department of State to increase scrutiny of China’s efforts to “subvert the principles and purposes” of the United Nations and its subordinate agencies.

The report also recommended an expansion of the Federal Trade Commission’s remit to limit the ability of foreign companies receiving direct or indirect state subsidies to take part in mergers or acquisitions in the US.

With respect to Taiwan, the USCC called on lawmakers to pass legislation that would elevate the role of Washington’s representative in the self-governed island – the director of the American Institute in Taiwan – to a president-nominated, Senate-confirmed position. Such a move would put the posting on a par with ambassadors to any other sovereign nation.

The USCC‘s report drew a strong rebuke from the Hong Kong government, which released a statement in the early hours of Tuesday shooting down the “unfounded accusations” about the city and urging the US to stop its interference in the city’s affairs.

“The HKSAR government will continue to discharge its duty to safeguard national security in Hong Kong in accordance with the law and without fear or anxiety. We will not be intimidated by the so-called sanctions unjustifiably imposed by foreign countries,” the statement read.

Additional reporting by Cheryl Heng

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Panel urges lawmakers to take page from Trump on US-China ‘reciprocity’
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