US mulls introducing bill to counter China over human rights & maritime security issues

The United States lawmakers have planned on Thursday to introduce legislation in the coming days which will put additional sanctions on Chinese officials, establish a closer relationship between the US and Taiwan and investigate the military operations of Beijing, along with other measures required to counter the threats by China to human rights and maritime security.

As far as the threat to human rights is concerned, Chinese officials have been accused of "forced labour, forced sterilization, and other abuses in Xinjiang" as nearly 1 million Uyghurs and Muslim minorities are held in "re-education camps".  However, Beijing has always refused to accept the allegations, 

Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Democratic chairman, and Jim Risch of Idaho, a senior Republican have informed that they would introduce the "Strategic Competition Act of 2021" for debate on April 14, as per a South China Morning Post report.

In a statement, Bob Menendez said, "I am incredibly proud to announce this unprecedented bipartisan effort to mobilize all US strategic, economic, and diplomatic tools for an Indo-Pacific strategy that will allow our nation to truly confront the challenges China poses to our national and economic security."

Bill To Counter China

A statement from the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations read, "The bill focuses on countering and confronting China's predatory international economic behaviour, and includes measures to track intellectual property violators, Chinese government subsidies, monitor Chinese use of Hong Kong to circumvent U.S. export controls and track the presence of Chinese companies in U.S. capital markets. Directs the United States to provide technical assistance to countries working to counter foreign corrupt practices and debt relief to the poorest countries who have requested forbearance due to the COVID-19 pandemic."

 "The bill also calls for enhanced coordination and cooperation with allies on arms control in the face of China's military modernization and expansion, and requires reporting on Chinese ballistic, hypersonic glide, and cruise missiles, conventional forces, nuclear, space, cyberspace, and other strategic domains," it added.

Meanwhile,  a US guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain had conducted a Taiwan Strait Transit on Wednesday, This came after China's navy announced its military drills near the islands to further increase the tensions near Taiwan. The US military has also warned that China is probably accelerating its timetable for capturing control of Taiwan. 

(With ANI Inputs)

Image: AP