(NewsNation) — A new year has ushered in a possible new posture toward China by the U.S.
The White House told NewsNation the Biden administration will continue to get tougher through a series of new policies in 2023 aimed at limiting China’s influence, economic growth, and military strength.
“We are facing a competitor that is determined to overtake U.S. technological leadership and willing to devote nearly limitless resources to that goal,” Jake Sullivan, national security adviser said.
Sullivan called it the “Protect Agenda.”
The plan no longer views Chinese growth as beneficial to the U.S. as a partner, but rather as a threat from a geopolitical rival.
The shift on China builds on what the Trump administration started, and we’re already seeing the Biden administration implement it. In the last few months, the White House has imposed limits on American companies’ foreign investments in China and on their manufacturing of certain things there, such as microchips, saying it will, “prevent companies that receive taxpayer money from turning around and making investments in China that undermine our national security.”
But the “Protect Agenda” may end up hurting American consumers. Continued tariffs and strained relations with China could result in Americans paying more for everyday products. That’s a price the White House and most of Congress seems willing to pay.
“There is a bipartisan concern over the long-term U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis.
In the new year, Gallagher will chair the brand new select committee on China, designed with largely the same goal as the White House’s “Protect Agenda.”
Gallagher told NewsNation earlier this year that his biggest worry is China’s growing military and the threat of a Taiwan invasion.
“We are simply not acting with the requisite sense of urgency this threat demands,” Gallagher said.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said prices for everything imported from China increased 1.8% from last year.