US Senators Introduce Bill To Establish Strategy, Objectives To Compete With China

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th April, 2021) Ranking members of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Bob Menendez and Jim Risch introduced on Thursday a comprehensive legislation laying out the principles, defining objectives and proposing a wide array of specific initiatives for the United States' strategic competition with China.

The 280-page bipartisan bill mandates the government to allocate sufficient funds and "properly align" the Federal budget to meet the challenge, appoint a senior official responsible for the matter in every federal agency, strengthen US alliances and partnerships with a focus on the Indo-Pacific and Europe.

"The introduction of this legislation is one important step towards ensuring the United States is postured to compete with China for decades to come," Risch said in a statement.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is expected to consider the Strategic Competition Act on April 14 at a markup session which precedes the full chamber deliberations.

The bill accuses China of leveraging its political, diplomatic, economic, military, technological and ideological power to become a strategic, near-peer global competitor of the United States.

"The current policies being pursued by the PRC threaten the future character of the international order and are shaping the rules, norms, and institutions that govern relations among states; will put at risk the ability of the United States to secure its national interests; will put at risk the future peace, prosperity, and freedom of the international community in the coming decades," the bill said.

The measure said the United States must adopt a policy of strategic competition with China as part of a broader strategic approach to the Indo-Pacific and the world to preserve a "free, open, democratic, inclusive, rules-based, stable, and diverse region," the bill added.

Among its multiple economic, military, diplomatic and humanitarian initiatives, the legislation calls for $300 million in annual appropriations "to counter the malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party globally."

The bill also recommends $655 million in Foreign Military Financing funding for the Indo-Pacific region. It advocates an enhanced partnership with Taiwan and expanded scope of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to scrutinizes transactions with China for potential security risks.