The U.S. Senate introduced a bipartisan bill that would strengthen U.S. strategic competition with China.
Senator Bob Menendez (D-NY), chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, introduced the “Strategic Competition Act of 2021” on April 8 to strengthen comprehensive strategic competition with China, and The bill, which announced bipartisan support from lawmakers, is scheduled to be considered by the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee in the coming days.
The Senate Foreign Affairs Committee introduced the new bill, which was introduced in consultation with Senator Jim Risch (R-OH), the Ranking Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and is the first major bill introduced by a bipartisan group of Democratic and Republican senators to engage in strategic competition with Beijing.
“The Strategic Competition Act of 2021 focuses on ensuring that the United States has the power to compete with China “in all aspects of national and international power” in the coming decades, reinforcing U.S. diplomatic strategy to address the threat from Beijing and reaffirming U.S. commitment to support Allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region and around the world, and to reassert U.S. leadership in international organizations and other multilateral forums.
The “Strategic Competition Act of 2021” proposes to prioritize security assistance in the Indo-Pacific region and strengthen U.S. diplomatic efforts to address the challenges posed by China in the Western Hemisphere, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Arctic, and Oceania.
The bill proposes investing in universal values, authorizing a wide range of human rights and civil society measures, including support for democracy in Hong Kong and sanctions for abuses such as forced labor and forced sterilization in Xinjiang; measures to track Chinese intellectual property infringers, track Chinese government subsidies, monitor China’s use of Hong Kong to circumvent U.S. export controls, track Chinese companies in U.S. capital markets, and focus on China’s predatory international economic practices.
The bill proposes to strengthen coordination and cooperation with allies in the area of arms control to confront China’s military modernization and expansion, calling for reports on China’s activities in ballistic missiles, hypersonic gliders, cruise missiles, conventional arms, nuclear, space, cyber and other strategic areas.
In response, Menendez said, “We are proud to announce this unprecedented bipartisan effort to mobilize all of America’s strategic, economic and diplomatic tools to develop an Indo-Pacific strategy that will truly enable our nation to confront the challenges that China poses to our national security and economic security. The ‘Strategic Competition Act of 2021’ is a recognition that this moment calls for a joint strategic response that re-establishes American leadership, invests in our ability to competitively defeat China, and allows diplomacy to once again be based on our core values.”
Menendez also announced that he plans to convene a legislative consultation on April 14 to allow the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee to consider and vote on the “Strategic Competition Act of 2021.
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