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Anti-China 'Strategic Competition Act' changes little
First Voice

Editor's note: CGTN's “First Voice” provides instant commentary on breaking stories. The daily column clarifies emerging issues and better defines the news agenda, offering a Chinese perspective on the latest global events.

In America, the political will to crush China's rise is bipartisan. As soon as the Democrats took control of the U.S. Senate, Chuck Schumer, more of a hawk than his Republican predecessor Mitch McConnell, immediately set out to work to create a mammoth anti-China bill.

Now, what he terms Strategic Competition Act of 2021 is making its way through the Congress after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 21-1 on it.

The bill is in many ways a codified statement of intent as opposed to a specific set of laws, in essence a grand anti-China and Cold War wish list of every category imaginable.

It aims to further formalize the misleading trope that China has a concrete plan to undermine Washington and establish a world order of its own, supposedly challenging U.S. security and values, and thus the American foreign policy ought to prevent it.

In advising steps to be taken, the bill sees to authorize $300 million in funding to counter China's media and narratives. It also aims to fund what it styles as the "negative impact" of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Essentially, the bill involves interfering in the affairs of others on a grand scale, as well as propaganda targeted at China's Tibet Autonomous Region, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

It reflects a desire for the United States to not co-exist with China, but to simply oppose it and contain it at all costs, dividing and upending the world. It is little more than a glorified wish list, which will ultimately be impossible for the U.S. bureaucracy to implement effectively.

Nonetheless, it illustrates the danger in which Washington, be it Republicans or Democrats, continues to advocate an uncompromising, zero-sum game toward any perceived challenger as well as its constant temptation to promote a "bogeyman" in order to justify aggression abroad.

As reflected by Chinese President Xi Jinping recently, China does not seek hegemony.

China has no grand plan or "strategy" to displace the United States and create a world order in its own image – this is only a reflection of what America itself has long done and endeavors still to do.

Beijing has repeatedly sought cooperation with Washington and sought talks in good faith, only to receive relentless hostility, smears and attacks each time.

China has shown reason, but the U.S. has shown an unquenchable thirst for geopolitical confrontation.

U.S. Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer. /Getty

U.S. Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer. /Getty

However, Beijing will nonetheless stand ready to support its core interests and resist American aggression. China will not stand idly by while the U.S. draws up elaborate schemes to promote separatism, unrest and contention in various regions.

It has driven American-backed influence out of Hong Kong calmly and orderly, and will ensure that Washington does not succeed in promoting separatism in Taiwan, disfiguring cross-strait relations and destabilizing any other region.

China's positions do not concern expansionism or "ambition" as much as they concern defending its own frontiers and national sovereignty from foreign-backed aggression.

The People's Republic of China is built upon the dream of it overcoming the century of humiliation and becoming an equal, sovereign nation. This also involves attaining national development.

China is not in a "global technological competition" with the United States as much as it strives to develop technologies in order to attain its own prosperity.

As a result, this bill changes little. China will continue to do what is in its best interests. It will continue to advocate cooperation, co-existence and multilateralism with the United States, despite the hysteria and zealousness abounding in Washington. American politicians must come to their senses and seek to co-exist with China, rather than attempting aimlessly and ultimately unsuccessfully to put China back in a box.

Nevertheless, don't forget – China is always ready to defend its positions when necessary.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)

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