Congress urged to curb China’s influence in Indo-Pacific

China is systematically exploiting US weaknesses and inconsistencies to expand its reach in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, but it also faces its own energy, diplomatic and economic vulnerabilities that Washington needs to better exploit, witnesses testified before Congress on Tuesday.

The hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy saw unusual bipartisan unanimity in a deeply divided Washington on the need to better support East Asian allies and partners.

“We need to be much more strategic,” said Craig Singleton, senior fellow with the non-partisan Foundation for Defence of Democracies. “It doesn’t mean regime change. It doesn’t mean we’re going to take actions that undermine the livelihood of the Chinese people. But there are very clear things we can do to push back.”

China is exposed politically, diplomatically, in the information space, with trade finance and economics, he added.

“Beijing interprets vulnerabilities, not only in Taiwan’s defences, but also in US and allied responses, as validation of its approach to date – sustained coercion below the threshold of war,” added Singleton, a former US diplomat.

  

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