Source: Written by Bu Yi Dao
/ Pigeon Dao Xiao Hu Dao
"We have no time."
The anxiety of racing against time is spreading on Capitol Hill in the United States.
Lawmakers are trying their best to pass more bills to "compete" with China before Congress adjourns on August 4.
never hesitated to significantly reduce the "American Innovation and Competition Act" known as the "master playbook for strategic competition with China". First, he squeezed out a US$52 billion chip bill as an "emergency", and then the House of Representatives passed an innovation bill worth over US$800 billion. Recording the military budget in response to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the "China-Russia threat"...
The air is filled with the atmosphere that "if it cannot be completed, it will cause irreparable damage to the U.S. economy and military."
The United States is accustomed to showing its hysterical "ferocity" against its identified "opponents."
But the question is, can the current strength of the United States support its so-called "ambition"?
1
At present, the American Innovation and Competition Act has received the most attention and the most hype on Capitol Hill.
This bill aims to enhance the competitiveness of the United States in key technologies, industries and other fields. Because of its clear "competition" direction, wide range of areas involved, and large planned appropriations, it can be said to be the first of all types of China-related bills in recent years. It is called the “master script for strategic competition with China.”
However, due to serious internal strife between the Democratic and Republican parties, this bill, which has been entangled in Congress for more than a year, is still in the "difficult" stage, and relevant negotiations have been deadlocked.
In order to break the deadlock, Senate Majority Leader and Democratic Senator Schumer recently stated that he plans to hold a preliminary vote on a "slimmed down version" of the China Competition Act as early as next Tuesday. People familiar with the matter said that the "slimmed down" version of the bill will include at least $52 billion in incentives and investment tax credits for the U.S. semiconductor manufacturing industry.
This can be said to be a painful move by the Democratic Party, and is also considered to be the "final blow" for the Biden administration to use the golden window before the mid-term elections.
Before Schumer made his statement, U.S. Commerce Secretary Raimondo and other officials had gone to Congress in person for two consecutive days to emphasize the importance of this bill to U.S. national security at closed-door briefings. Raimondo said that with many industry giants threatening to divert investment to other countries, the United States has faced an emergency moment where "success or failure depends on this one move." She also demanded that "Congress must complete the legislative work before the August recess."
Earlier, Raimondo and Defense Secretary Austin also jointly sent a letter to both parties in Congress, urging Congress to immediately pass the bill. They claimed in the letter, "This is the first time we have faced a strategic competitor like China, which is both determined to become a global leader in future industries and has the ability and resources to do so if we do not work hard ourselves."
It can be seen that the Biden administration and Democratic members of Congress are very anxious. U.S. media said that given the U.S.’s eagerness to increase domestic production, there are increasing voices among members of Congress that chip financing should be passed as a separate bill before August. But so far, the details of the congressional deliberations are still being worked out by Schumer and Minority Leader McConnell. Some congressmen said that the two parties have not yet reached a consensus on whether to pass the "chip bill" separately.
However, it is worth noting that although due to the intensification of the struggle between the two parties, the "American Innovation and Competition Act" has temporarily shrunk from a wide-ranging "Master Script for Strategic Competition with China" totaling more than 200 billion to more than 300 billion US dollars. A US$52 billion slimming down plan focused on the chip field does not mean that it has any substantial relaxation in targeting China.
A report from the American "Politician" website mentioned that in any final "chip" deal, a potential additional clause that is more likely to survive is an amendment that requires the government to strengthen scrutiny of US investments in China.
This bill has previously been called an evil law "not seen in 250 years." In May this year, lawmakers from both parties intended to include this item in the "American Innovation and Competition Act."
was criticized by the U.S.-China Business Council, which represents the U.S. business community, and believed that this idea had no precedent in the 250-year history of the United States."Voice of America" said that this draft caused a strong backlash from many companies in the United States, and Bloomberg criticized this bill as expensive, confusing and ineffective.
In addition, although partisan disputes have affected the speed of advancement of relevant bills, we should also clearly see that not only do the two parties in the United States now have a high degree of consensus on the issue of "competition" with China, but some American companies also hope to benefit from it. "Profit".
html reported in June that more than 100 U.S. company executives, including the CEO of Amazon, the CEO of Google’s parent company, and the CEO of Microsoft, signed a letter calling on the U.S. to pass measures aimed at improving the U.S.’s comparison with China. The Bill on Economic Competitiveness, specifically targeting competition in the chip manufacturing sector.Unlike the "difficult delivery" of the "American Innovation and Competition Act", the passage of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act in the House of Representatives was relatively smooth. Moreover, on top of Biden's record-breaking defense budget of $773 billion, the House of Representatives has also authorized an additional $37 billion in spending, making the U.S. defense budget next year likely to exceed $800 billion.
According to the procedure, after the House of Representatives passes it, the Senate will also pass its own version of the National Defense Authorization Bill, and the House and Senate will finally negotiate together to finalize the final number.
However, when it comes to increasing military spending, they have no differences, and each one is more generous than the other. It is said that the version proposed by the Senate Armed Services Committee is $45 billion higher than the budget proposed by Biden and even higher than that of the House of Representatives.
Military expert Song Zhongping told "Buyi Dao" that the increase in US military spending is on the one hand to deal with conflicts, and on the other hand it is aimed at China and Russia.
In addition, the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act continues to be provocative on the Taiwan issue. According to reports, the bill includes support for inviting Taiwan to participate in the 2024 Rim of the Pacific military exercise, and requires the government to explain to Congress the reasons for delayed delivery of arms sales to Taiwan and speed up delivery.
Moreover, the chairman of the Asia-Pacific Group of the House of Representatives also revealed on Twitter that the "Taiwan Peace and Stability Act" he proposed has been voted on first.
The bill requires the Biden administration to submit a government-wide strategic report within 90 days to strengthen deterrence against cross-strait conflicts and focus on cooperation with allies. It also requires US agencies to analyze ways to assist Taiwan's economic and expansion development.
Some experts reminded that in the current so-called "competition" between the United States and China, some economic, trade, technological, sanctions and other means aimed at suppressing China have not yet all bottomed out. Therefore, we must still remain highly vigilant against Capitol Hill, which is obsessed with playing games with China and is obsessed with promulgating various evil laws to "contain China."
2
At the same time, the butterfly effect caused by a domestic verdict in the United States is also very interesting.
html On the 14th, "WikiLeaks" stated on its official Twitter that the CIA had previously attempted to assassinate its founder Julian Assange, and it was then-CIA Director Pompeo who tacitly conveyed this order.This revelation originated from a ruling by the New York Federal Court in the United States on the 13th.
A New York court jury found former CIA software engineer Joshua Schulte guilty of eight espionage-related charges and one count of obstruction for leaking the agency's "most valuable" hacking tools to the WikiLeaks website. The charges were established. Each espionage charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, meaning Schulte, 33, could face decades in prison.
Schulte originally worked for the CIA's elite hacker team. He stole the CIA's hacking tool library "Treasure House 7" documents and sent them to the WikiLeaks website after his resignation. He was discovered by the CIA in March 2017.
This is nothing less than an earthquake for the CIA.
Because "Treasure House 7" is one of the CIA's most important weapons in cyber warfare, it combines a variety of computer viruses, malware, and Trojan horse programs to invade and destroy target computers and technical systems.
This leak revealed how the CIA hacked into the smartphone systems of overseas users or planted eavesdropping programs on Internet TV sets to collect foreign intelligence.
Damian Williams, the federal prosecutor in charge of the case, said Schulte committed "one of the most devastating espionage crimes" in U.S. history. The leak of
is also the largest data loss incident in the history of the CIA.
The then CIA Director Mike Pompeo was completely outraged.
He has publicly characterized WikiLeaks as a "hostile intelligence agency," which means that CIA agents can treat the organization as a spy, including monitoring the communications and actions of its members.
Privately, according to US media reports, in meetings with senior Trump administration officials, he pushed for radical measures, including whether to kidnap Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
broke the news that the highest levels of the White House and the CIA even discussed the possibility of assassinating him.
Pompeo later admitted that "some parts of these statements are true."
In June this year, the British government approved the extradition of Assange to the United States. If Assange is extradited to the United States, he may face up to 175 years in prison. "WikiLeaks" editor-in-chief Grafsson said that the British court's decision was "equivalent to a death sentence for Assange."
In fact, Washington's relentless pursuit of Assange and "WikiLeaks" only stemmed from their actions revealing the tip of the iceberg of the United States' rampage in global cyberspace.
Assange once said that the United States is a "monitoring superpower." From the National Security Agency's "Operation Telescreen" and "Quantum" cyber attack weapons to the CIA's dedicated "Hive" malicious code attack control weapon platform, technically speaking, the existing backbone network equipment of the international Internet and around the world Important information infrastructure, as long as it contains hardware, operating systems and application software provided by US Internet companies, is likely to become a target of attacks and theft by US intelligence agencies.
Nowadays, China is one of the most frequent targets of cyber attacks in the United States. The CIA is currently considering a proposal to establish an independent "China Mission Center." U.S. Director of National Intelligence Haines once stated that "the U.S. intelligence community's annual threat assessment lists key threat countries, with China at the top of the list, and China remains the A priority target of the intelligence community.”
In addition, Washington also criticized China and accused China of “stealing” Western intelligence and technology to gain a competitive advantage. In early July, the heads of the U.S. and British intelligence agencies gave a rare joint speech in London, with the theme of warning of "game-changing" challenges from China.
3
From military to political to cyberspace, the United States’ attack and containment actions against China are unfolding in all directions.
Some analysts say that the two houses of Congress will enter the traditional vacation or constituency service period in August. Although there are still several weeks of sessions in September and October, they will enter the white-hot stage before the mid-term elections, and there will be almost no negotiation to finalize the bill. room. Therefore, the next three weeks will be the last golden window for the Biden administration to push legislation as it wishes.
Although the competition bill against China has been controversial in the two sessions, Lu Xiang, an expert on American issues at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told "Bi Yi Dao" that the overall attitude of the United States towards competition with China will not change. The current strength of the United States may not be enough to support their "ambition."
Lu Xiang believes that the current political chaos in the United States is beyond imagination and will directly affect the construction of domestic strength in the United States. The United States has always emphasized that the key to competing with China is to build the United States well. One of the slogans put forward by the Biden administration is to build a better country. The United States must strengthen its competitiveness.
However, judging from the reality, the US GDP shrank by 1.5% in the first quarter, and the second quarter growth rate will be announced at the end of this month. It is now predicted that the GDP growth rate in the second quarter is still likely to be negative. If there is negative growth for two consecutive quarters, then, according to a relatively simple definition, it means that the U.S. economy will enter a recession, and the U.S. economy will face a very difficult situation in the second half of the year.
The only data that the U.S. economy can brag about now is the low unemployment rate, but this data is also deceptive. The problem with the U.S. economy is not the unemployment rate, but the large number of vacant jobs that are not filled.According to statistics, there are currently more than 11 million unfilled jobs in the United States, which is also one of the important reasons for the supply chain break.
Lu Xiang said that before the mid-term elections, many polls showed that the first thing ordinary Americans care about is the economy, the second is the economy, and the third is the economy.
But the political elites in Washington have embarked on a path that runs counter to the ordinary people. At a time when the public is most concerned about how to build the country well, elites believe that paying too much attention to domestic affairs will distract attention from China. The current effort by Congress to pass a series of China-related bills reflects this mentality.
Lu Xiang believes that the problem is that the current predicament facing the United States has nothing to do with China.
The confrontation theory of "great power politics" represented by Mearsheimer in the United States has shaped the general mentality of American politicians. According to this theory, the United States cannot let China become another "regional hegemon" under any circumstances.
This kind of "China phobia" is not only completely unhealthy and harmful to the common development of all countries in the world within the existing order, but also allows American leaders to indulge in the waves of the vast Pacific while turning a blind eye to the current domestic chaos. It is simply unable to correctly view and resolve its domestic difficulties and divisions, which will ultimately lead the United States to embark on the path of decline.
Based on its strength, the United States will definitely be able to cause more or less trouble to China, but as long as China adheres to a steady and long-term, people-centered development path, the United States will not be able to block China's development trend.
Regarding the so-called competition bill against China introduced by the United States, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian has previously stated that the China-related content in the bill is full of Cold War mentality and zero-sum concepts, denigrating China's development path and domestic and foreign policies, and advocating Carry out strategic competition with China and comment on issues related to Taiwan, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Tibet. China firmly opposes this.
Zhao Lijian emphasized that the United States should abandon the Cold War mentality and zero-sum concept, view China and Sino-US relations objectively and rationally, delete the negative content related to China in the bill, stop reviewing and advancing the bill, and stop damaging Sino-US relations and bilateral cooperation in important areas. .
pictures come from the Internet
