Columnist
May 27, 2020 at 1:26 p.m. EDT
The coronavirus pandemic has brought urgency to the search for a national strategy on China that both Republicans and Democrats can agree on. But right now, both sides are politicizing the issue for their own reasons. That plays directly into Beijing’s hands.
The Chinese government’s actions throughout the pandemic have caused leaders and regular Americans alike to awaken to the fact that the Chinese Communist Party’s actions aren’t just a problem for the Chinese people. Beijing’s early coverups, ongoing lack of transparency, and audacious use of propaganda are hurting our ability to respond to the pandemic and costing American lives.
But even that issue has become bitterly partisan in this election year. Republicans and the Trump campaign are intentionally using the China issue to detract from President Trump’s own pandemic failures and attack Joe Biden. The Democrats, meanwhile, refuse to sign on to legislation that would hold the CCP accountable for its actions and have pulled out of what was supposed to be a bipartisan task force to organize Congress’s response to the China challenge.
On Tuesday, a group of centrist, national-security-minded Democratic lawmakers wrote to leaders of both parties, urging them to put politics aside and come together on the China issue, for the sake of our country. The leaders of the Blue Dog Coalition also have a plan for how that might work.
“A lot of members of Congress can agree that China poses a range of threats to the United States," Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), the co-chair of the Blue Dog Coalition, told me. “Make no mistake, we are in the midst of a great-power competition. In that competition, we have to win. And the way that we win is when we are united as a country. So, we don’t have room for partisanship on these issues.”
The letter the Blue Dogs sent to both Republican and Democratic leaders calls for both sides to understand and acknowledge the other’s concerns. Republicans must acknowledge the risks and sensitivities of Asian Americans as tensions rise. Democrats must not shy away from the need to investigate the origins of the coronavirus pandemic and have to take steps to hold China accountable.
Murphy has introduced a bill that would establish a national commission that would investigate our government’s handling of the pandemic but also cover Beijing’s actions. The Blue Dog letter also calls for a federal inquiry into how Beijing might exploit the pandemic to advance its foreign policy objectives at our expense.
“The Chinese government—true to form—has refused to honestly acknowledge its central role in the emergence and spread of the virus, and has bullied individuals and nations that have called for a full and fair accounting of events to reduce the chance they will be repeated,” the letter states. “We cannot let the Chinese government’s campaign of dishonesty and disinformation continue without consequence, especially when it is placing American lives in danger.”
There has been bipartisan consensus on issues related to China. The Chinese government’s internment of more than 1 million Uighur Muslims and other ethnic minorities shocks all. The Senate passed the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act this month by unanimous consent, and the House is expected to pass it soon. But the human rights issue is only one part of the equation.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced he has informed Congress that “Hong Kong is no longer autonomous from China, given facts on the ground.” U.S. actions to respond to Beijing’s crackdown there would be much stronger with bipartisan congressional support.
Interestingly, there was a bipartisan effort in development to coordinate China legislation and policy across parties and committee jurisdictions. One day before the launch in February, Democratic leaders pulled out for reasons they still decline to explain. This month, Republicans launched the “China Task Force” without them.
Murphy said Democratic leaders deserve blame for pulling out of the project but Republican leaders deserve blame for moving forward without them. Our democratic dysfunction feeds Beijing’s argument that its authoritarian system is better.
“This gives the Chinese exactly what they want,” said Murphy. “Both parties must be sure they don’t fall victim to the partisan posturing, because it just weakens the United States’ position as a world leader and cedes ground to China.”
There are huge China-related issues pressing to the fore that we can no longer ignore, and they go beyond the pandemic. How will we deal with China’s internal repression as well as its external economic aggression, military expansion, and interference in our politics, markets, schools and media?
This monumental challenge of our national great-power competition with China existed long before the current political season. Its ramifications go far beyond this political season. We have to prioritize U.S. national security above short-term partisan political gain.
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PERMALINK: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/27/we-must-find-bipartisanship-china-issue/