Warning that the Chinese “aggressive posture” globally is hurting US interests, an influential US senator has sought redefining of the bilateral relationship, particularly in the area of trade.
“I think it’s time for us to really step forward as a government and as a country and redefine the nature of our relationship with China,” Senator Jim Webb, member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told MSNBC news channel.
“Part of that is China’s growth economically and how we have sort of weakened ourselves in many ways by not standing up to the currency valuation issues and the balance of trade issues,” he said. “A large part of it is the nature of China in that region to demand bilateral solutions with smaller countries....”
And another part of it, Webb said, is how the US government is run. “There’s a company called the Millennium Challenge Corporation which is funded by American tax dollars. We put $8.8 billion into this organisation in the last five years, and we just saw data a couple of days ago that shows that the number-one recipient of these contracts which are going principally to Africa are going to Chinese companies.”
Similarly, the American taxpayer is funding Chinese companies to develop infrastructure projects in places like Africa.
“It’s government mismanagement,” he said. “So we need to step forward and redefine the entire relationship with China for the stability of East Asia and for our own benefit and the benefit of our workers,” Webb said, adding that the Chinese “aggressive posture” globally is hurting US interests.