The US House of Representatives approved 25 anti-China laws in just one week in September: a clear sign that Washington’s new cold war is quickly heating up.
The hawkish House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party proudly described these days as “China Week”, boasting that much of the legislation had “overwhelming bipartisan” support.
NBC News noted that “many of the measures passed with bipartisan support at a time when viewing [China] primarily as a geopolitical rival is one of the few issues both Republicans and Democrats can agree on”.
Cold War Two fervor is reaching fever pitch in the United States. CIA Director William Burns has referred to China as the “bigge[st] long-term threat”. The last two US secretaries of state, Democrat Antony Blinken and Republican Mike Pompeo, gave speeches specifically dedicated to demonizing China.
In an article in the Financial Times in 2023, centrist British columnist Gideon Rachman recalled that, “Visiting Washington last week, it was striking how commonplace talk of war between the US and China has become”.
“Many influential people seem to think that a US-China war is not only possible but probable”, Rachman wrote, adding that “US officials are now looking at the cold war — not as a warning, but as a potential model”.
That’s a wrap on China Week!
The House passed TWENTY FIVE bills to combat critical Chinese Communist Party threats.
This includes key legislation aligned with the Select Committee’s 2023 policy recommendations.
📑 In-depth recap of every bill below ⬇️https://t.co/EmYFc2rgfm pic.twitter.com/yLk4HWBOf0
— Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (@committeeonccp) September 13, 2024
Among the bills passed during September 2024’s “China Week” was the “Countering the PRC Malign Influence Fund Authorization Act”, which would give $1.63 billion to the State Department and USAID over five years ($325 million each year from 2023 through 2027) in order to fund organizations that spread anti-China propaganda around the world.
Anti-interventionist think tank the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft noted that this massive funding for anti-China propaganda would amount to roughly twice the annual operating expenses of CNN.
Other bills approved in “China Week” include legislation that threatens the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, targets Chinese officials and their family members over Taiwan, seeks to strengthen US influence in the Pacific region, deepens ties to Japan and South Korea, expands blacklists of Chinese companies, and hopes to weaken the renminbi.
Many of the bills would facilitate the imposition of further unilateral US sanctions on entities not only from China, but also from Russia, Iran, the DPRK (North Korea), Cuba, and Venezuela. (The United States has already imposed sanctions on one-third of all countries on Earth, including 60% of poor nations.)
The so-called “End Chinese Dominance of Electric Vehicles in America Act” portrays Chinese EVs as a supposed threat, and would restrict them. However, it fails to mention that, as the New York Times put it, “few Chinese electric cars are sold in U.S.” An April 2024 report by the US International Trade Commission found that Chinese vehicles made up a mere 2% of EV imports into the US from 2018 to 2023. Despite this, just a month later, President Joe Biden announced 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs.
Other bills passed during “China Week” target Chinese drones, batteries, biotechnology, routers and modems, telecommunications infrastructure, and media outlets.
Approved legislation would also block scientific cooperation with China, while banning the sale of US farmland to nationals of China, Russia, Iran, and the DPRK (North Korea).
An especially redundant bill adopted by the House would withhold funding to US universities that host Confucius Institutes – organizations that teach foreign students about Chinese languages and culture. This measure went through despite the fact that, as was reported in 2023 by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), “In 2018, Congress restricted federal funding to schools with institutes; nearly all of the institutes have since closed”.
All of this legislation passed during “China Week” must subsequently be approved by the Senate and signed by the president before it officially becomes law.
Eric Arthur Blair
2024-09-22 at 20:11
The USA is killing Russia and China militarily, economically and industrially.
Just as the US proxy UkroNazis are on the verge of crushing the Russian military, just as Smellin’ Yellen’s oil price cap and sanctions have brought the Russian economy to its knees, we see further demonstrations of US might.
Apple have just released their latest superduper iphone model which features A NEW BUTTON*.
This will kill any competition from Huawei who are unable to innovate and will lose all world market share!!
https://youtu.be/7DHMtzWGXOc?si=I-BJEHcZKOEk1_Zr
https://youtu.be/ZC_YEu-vtWA?si=g87zVHo9ePTStxo_
*cynics call it the Mossad detonation button – how dare they!
Eric Arthur Blair
2024-09-25 at 16:57
*this is obviously untrue because everybody knows that devices “cleverly modified” by Israel are always remotely detonated by Mossad (from a safe distance, as is the habit of such brave, bold innovators). The “owner” of the device (AKA ripped-off sucker customer) has zero control over it.
Exactly the same for “owners” of Tesla cars, that can be hacked by the CIA to disable the brakes and airbags and accelerate the car, to smash you, the stupid sucker customer, along with your children, into a brick wall.
JonnyJames
2024-09-23 at 13:55
Great, the Bipartisan Consensus strikes again. Prices will go higher on many items, inflation will increase. The Fed cut rates a whopping .50% in one go, how lovely for the Wall St. oligarchy.
Meanwhile, the health care crisis, housing crisis, consumer debt crisis, etc. But our so-called leaders don’t want to talk about it, just more BS and emotional distractions.
The US has 100s of billions for nuclear weapons “modernization”, 10s of billions to fund and facilitate Israeli Genocide of Palestine, 10s of billions for proxy wars in Ukraine to provoke Russia into a nuclear exchange. And plenty to enact de-facto War on China (sanctions is just an Orwellian Newspeak euphemism for economic warfare).
Millions of insouciant, conditioned, distracted, misinformed, artificially-divided, and gullible US dwellers will go to the polls and go through the charade of “voting” as they are instructed to by the MassMedia and politricksters. No matter the outcome, the status quo, the Washington Consensus, oligarchy, genocide, kleptocracy, war and declining quality of live for the 99% will continue.
Energieerhaltungssatz
2024-09-25 at 13:58
Welcome to “the free world” in which the “capitalists” are free to lie, cheat or steal and force everyone else to “capitulate” to their dictatorship.
Eric Arthur Blair
2024-09-26 at 11:15
insouciant = comfortably numb
All in all you’re just another brick in the wall.
Thank you Roger Waters.
Energieerhaltungssatz
2024-09-29 at 05:29
Speaking of music, Europe has so many different countries with diverse cultures, but when I turn on the German radio, I mostly hear English songs on most German radio channels 24/7, so I stopped listening to the radio. Instead, I choose the music I like myself, without being forced to solely listen to English songs all the time. Now I listen to songs like e.g. the Wong Fei Hong Theme by Jackie Chan or азия by ялла or Guajira guantanamera by Compay Segundo or Litaliano by Toto Cutugno or Широка река by Надежда Кадышева or … Of course, I also listen to English songs, e.g. Stand by Me by Ben E. King.
John R Moffett
2024-09-24 at 10:32
The Uniparty shows how free markets work in the world today. They work by propaganda, tariffs, banning imports and preventing people from learning anything about the competitors. What could be more “free” than that? The jails are all filled with the wrong people.
Ziggy
2024-09-24 at 16:33
Pretty ironic that if we would see some similar news from China, that the Chinese congress would celebrate something like ,,US week” and passing anti – US legislation all around, the ,,free press” in the ,,civilised” West would go beserk – claiming that China would be guilty of ,,foul play” and all that kind of bull, but of course never mention that what the US is really doing here, is just the same as this same US has been accusing Russia of doing… spending billions of dollars on anti – China propaganda!!! Amazing western hypocrisy at play here. Just makes one 🤮
Eric Arthur Blair
2024-09-24 at 17:13
Here is proof of the authoritarian, totalitarian, downtrodden, miserable, dangerous, unsafe state of China…
compared with the good ole US of A, full of freedomaceous free, free, freedom, happy, happy land of liberty and democracy and freeeeeeedom!!!
(saying something repeatedly makes it true)
https://youtu.be/a-R_eSF9-5M?feature=shared