Doing what is “right” on a wide range of issues has reinforced the momentum in U.S. efforts to counter Beijing.
By Robert Sutter
November 30, 2022
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2022 showed impressive momentum in efforts by the so-called Washington Consensus to target adverse Chinese practices. Featuring bipartisan majorities in Congress working closely with Trump and Biden administration officials, the consensus over the past five years has created an ever stronger a “whole of government” effort to counter Beijing’s very serious security, economic, and governance challenges.
Two challenges have been seen as representing particularly dangerous, existential threats to U.S. national security and well-being. The first is the Chinese effort to undermine U.S. power and influence in Asia and dominate the region. The second is the Chinese effort to seek dominance in the high technology industries of the future. Such dominance would make the United States subservient to Chinese economic power, and because such technology is essential to modern national security, subservient to Chinese military power.
Countering China
After protracted deliberations lasting over a year, a compromise was approved in the U.S. Senate on July 26 and the House on July 28 on the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act, which supports U.S. competition with China in high technology industries and military forces dependent on high technology. In the end, 17 Republican senators and 24 Republican representatives voted for the bill, which was warmly welcomed by the Biden administration.
Global Impacts 