WASHINGTON: Some influential Republican lawmakers have urged secretary of state Antony Blinken hold China accountable for its egregious human rights abuses, unfair trade practices and aggression towards the US and its allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific and beyond, including its unacceptable behavior and provocative against India and Taiwan.
The lawmakers wrote a letter to Blinken and treasury secretary Janet Yellen, ahead of their trip to Beijing.
Blinken goes to China on Sunday. Yellen is expected to travel there later in February.
“The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) has stepped up its attack in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond,” Republican senators led by Marco Rubio of Florida wrote in the letter on Wednesday.
They urged them not to give a propaganda victory to the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and to hold the CCP accountable for its egregious human rights abuses, unfair trade practices, leadership role in the fentanyl crisis, and attack towards allies and partners in India. the Pacific Ocean.
Signatories to the letter in addition to Rubio are Senators Chuck Grassley, Bill Cassidy, Eric Schmitt, Dan Sullivan, Kevin Cramer, Ted Budd, Rick Scott, Marsha Blackburn, Lindsey Graham, Shelley Moore Capito, Pete Ricketts, John Hoeven and Bill Hagerty .
According to the Biden administration’s National Security Strategy, China is “the only competitor that aims to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do it.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping said in his report to the 20th Party Congress that “the CCP has shown a fighting spirit and firm determination not to submit to coercive power.”
“As we have seen recently, General Secretary Xi has engaged in unacceptable and provocative behavior in the Taiwan Strait and along the Himalayan border with India,” the letter said.
“Across the Indo-Pacific, the CCP has…intelligence-gathering layers in the United States, Japan and across Europe to suppress dissidents and keep tabs on those Beijing deems a threat. It is clear that General Secretary Xi is determined to use coercion and aggression against the US and our allies and partners to achieve his geopolitical goals. Our top priority must therefore be to discourage the CCP from achieving these goals,” the senators wrote.
India, the United States and several other world powers are talking about the need to ensure a free, open and prosperous Indo-Pacific in the context of China’s military maneuvers in the resource-rich region.
China claims almost all of the disputed South China Sea, although parts of it are claimed by Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam. Beijing has built artificial islands and military installations in the South China Sea. China also has territorial disputes with Japan in the East China Sea.
According to the Senators, the CCP is the worst offender of human rights.
Both the Biden and Trump administrations have determined that Beijing’s actions against Uyghurs, and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) – including its system of surveillance and mass internment, will deny individual rights to practice their religion peacefully. , and the use of forced labour, sexual violence, forced abortion, and forced sterilization of women – these are genocide and crimes against humanity.
In addition, the CCP continues to deny basic human rights to other groups that the regime considers to be a threat, such as Tibetans, Christians and Falun Gong practitioners. The CCP is also responsible for fueling the fentanyl crisis in the US, a scourge that has, and continues to, kill Americans.
“Finally, the CCP continues the appalling practice of unjustly detaining US citizens and family members of US citizens, including David Lin, Mark Swidan, Kai Li, Gulshan Abbas, Ekpar Asat, and Zhou Deyong. You must make clear that the United States will not cooperate with a regime that uses hostages as bargaining chips,” the letter said.
Beijing, they said, also has a long history of unfair trade practices and industrial espionage, which has caused enormous harm to American workers and our economy.
“For decades, China has engaged in a methodical campaign to steal American intellectual property and research, often diverting the acquired technologies to military purposes. He has repeatedly abused his privileges in the global trading system to take advantage of our nation’s open economy and establish himself as a leader in critical industries, including pharmaceuticals, rare earth minerals, and commodities such as steel,” the senators wrote.
“We are pleased that the US Trade Representative has continued to impose Section 301 tariffs on certain products made in China in response to its “unreasonable” and “discriminatory” non-market practices, and this tool should continue to used to fight unfair trade. Chinese policies. In the meantime, much more must be done to rebalance our economic relationship with Beijing,” the senators wrote.
The lawmakers wrote a letter to Blinken and treasury secretary Janet Yellen, ahead of their trip to Beijing.
Blinken goes to China on Sunday. Yellen is expected to travel there later in February.
“The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) has stepped up its attack in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond,” Republican senators led by Marco Rubio of Florida wrote in the letter on Wednesday.
They urged them not to give a propaganda victory to the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and to hold the CCP accountable for its egregious human rights abuses, unfair trade practices, leadership role in the fentanyl crisis, and attack towards allies and partners in India. the Pacific Ocean.
Signatories to the letter in addition to Rubio are Senators Chuck Grassley, Bill Cassidy, Eric Schmitt, Dan Sullivan, Kevin Cramer, Ted Budd, Rick Scott, Marsha Blackburn, Lindsey Graham, Shelley Moore Capito, Pete Ricketts, John Hoeven and Bill Hagerty .
According to the Biden administration’s National Security Strategy, China is “the only competitor that aims to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do it.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping said in his report to the 20th Party Congress that “the CCP has shown a fighting spirit and firm determination not to submit to coercive power.”
“As we have seen recently, General Secretary Xi has engaged in unacceptable and provocative behavior in the Taiwan Strait and along the Himalayan border with India,” the letter said.
“Across the Indo-Pacific, the CCP has…intelligence-gathering layers in the United States, Japan and across Europe to suppress dissidents and keep tabs on those Beijing deems a threat. It is clear that General Secretary Xi is determined to use coercion and aggression against the US and our allies and partners to achieve his geopolitical goals. Our top priority must therefore be to discourage the CCP from achieving these goals,” the senators wrote.
India, the United States and several other world powers are talking about the need to ensure a free, open and prosperous Indo-Pacific in the context of China’s military maneuvers in the resource-rich region.
China claims almost all of the disputed South China Sea, although parts of it are claimed by Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam. Beijing has built artificial islands and military installations in the South China Sea. China also has territorial disputes with Japan in the East China Sea.
According to the Senators, the CCP is the worst offender of human rights.
Both the Biden and Trump administrations have determined that Beijing’s actions against Uyghurs, and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) – including its system of surveillance and mass internment, will deny individual rights to practice their religion peacefully. , and the use of forced labour, sexual violence, forced abortion, and forced sterilization of women – these are genocide and crimes against humanity.
In addition, the CCP continues to deny basic human rights to other groups that the regime considers to be a threat, such as Tibetans, Christians and Falun Gong practitioners. The CCP is also responsible for fueling the fentanyl crisis in the US, a scourge that has, and continues to, kill Americans.
“Finally, the CCP continues the appalling practice of unjustly detaining US citizens and family members of US citizens, including David Lin, Mark Swidan, Kai Li, Gulshan Abbas, Ekpar Asat, and Zhou Deyong. You must make clear that the United States will not cooperate with a regime that uses hostages as bargaining chips,” the letter said.
Beijing, they said, also has a long history of unfair trade practices and industrial espionage, which has caused enormous harm to American workers and our economy.
“For decades, China has engaged in a methodical campaign to steal American intellectual property and research, often diverting the acquired technologies to military purposes. He has repeatedly abused his privileges in the global trading system to take advantage of our nation’s open economy and establish himself as a leader in critical industries, including pharmaceuticals, rare earth minerals, and commodities such as steel,” the senators wrote.
“We are pleased that the US Trade Representative has continued to impose Section 301 tariffs on certain products made in China in response to its “unreasonable” and “discriminatory” non-market practices, and this tool should continue to used to fight unfair trade. Chinese policies. In the meantime, much more must be done to rebalance our economic relationship with Beijing,” the senators wrote.
