Bipartisanship in US House of Representatives Towards the CCP Threat: Key Committees
Executive Summary
1. A bipartisanship has emerged in the US House of Representatives that is considerably hostile towards China and the Chinese Communist Party at its helm.
2. The House Armed Services Committee has expanded its scope beyond external relations. There is a new focus on domestic issues such as American strategic petroleum reserve, farmland and university research deemed to be vital to US national security interests.
3. There is an emphasis on arming and financing Taiwan despite Beijing’s objections. The 2023 Taiwan Democracy Defence Lend-Lease Act is modelled on the American Lend-Lease Act that backed the Soviet Union during World War II against Nazi Germany and the 2022 Ukraine Democracy Defence Lend-Lease Act.
4. The House Foreign Affairs Committee is seeking to name the Chinese Communist Party as an “organised criminal syndicate”. This committee also alleges Chinese use of neurobiological weapons against American government personnel.
5. The House Financial Services Committee is imposing financial sanctions on Beijing to deter a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Legislation by this Committee threatens Chinese financial interests and access to American capital markets and domestic market for leading Chinese corporates and exporters.
6. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers is investigating TikTok in the United States and wanting it to be banned. In March 2023, Rodgers chaired her committee’s hearing which interrogated TikTok’s Singaporean CEO Chew Shou Zi.
7. Fellow Committee Member Dan Crenshaw is examining alleged Chinese involvement in the fentanyl trafficking into the United States, suspected Chinese infiltration of American universities and Chinese origins of the COVID-19 global pandemic.
8. Winning presidential candidates from the Republican and Democratic Parties will have their own approach and style to the emerging Chinese challenger in the international system. While US domestic politics may seem deeply polarised, the US president can count on the broadly bipartisanship support in the House of Representatives and the Senate to take a tougher stance against China.
