US and China can cooperate even in a time of heightened tensions, a House member says

A member of the House select committee on China argued for continued US-China cooperation despite increasing tensions at a think tank event Tuesday to unveil a new initiative on how the two countries might work together.

“Collaboration does not preclude deterrence or preclude competition or vice versa,” said Representative Andy Kim, Democrat of New Jersey, who also sits on the House foreign affairs and armed services committees.

Kim spoke at an event held by the Washington think tanks Brookings Institution and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies to announce a joint two-year project called “Advancing Collaboration in an Era of Strategic Competition”.

According to the CSIS website, the initiative will seek to “diagnose barriers now impinging on collaborative efforts” and “develop a playbook of best practices” to improve the effectiveness of collaboration across different domains.

Kim called much of Capitol Hill “reactionary” and urged a longer-term, more “strategic” consideration of the bilateral relationship, placing it in the broader context of US national interests like climate change, global health and emerging technologies.

Kim called rhetoric on China from some fellow legislators that was “unhelpful, untrue and reckless”. Citing the Chinese balloon transit across the US in January, Kim recalled, one Congressional committee chairman had even said on TV “that perhaps there’s a biological weapon flying over the United States”.