Washington:
The U.S. Senate voted 68-32 on Tuesday to approve a sweeping package of legislation intended to enhance the country’s potential to compete with Chinese technologies.
An indignant China responded to the vote by saying it objected to getting cast as an “imaginary” U.S. enemy.
The wish for a difficult line in dealings with China is one of the couple of bipartisan sentiments in the deeply divided U.S. Congress, which is narrowly controlled by President Joe Biden’s fellow Democrats.
The measure authorizes about $190 billion for provisions to strengthen U.S. technologies and study – and would separately approve spending $54 billion to enhance U.S. production and study into semiconductors and telecommunications gear, like $2 billion devoted to chips made use of by automakers that have seen enormous shortages and made substantial production cuts.
China’s parliament expressed “strong indignation and resolute opposition” to the bill. It mentioned in a statement that the U.S. bill showed “paranoid delusion of wanting to be the only winner” and had distorted the original spirit of innovation and competitors.
“We firmly object to the United States seeing China as an imaginary enemy,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters in Beijing.
The bill will have to pass the House of Representatives to be sent to the White House for Biden to sign into law. It is not clear what legislation in the House will look like or when it may possibly take it up.
The bill has a quantity of other China-connected provisions like prohibiting the social media app TikTok from getting downloaded on government devices, and would block the obtain of drones manufactured and sold by providers backed by the Chinese government. It would also let diplomats and Taiwanese military to show their flag and put on their uniforms even though in the United States on official enterprises.
It would also develop broad new mandatory sanctions on Chinese entities engaged in U.S. cyberattacks or theft of U.S. intellectual house from U.S. firms, and offers for a evaluation of export controls on products that could be used to assistance human rights abuses.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a co-sponsor of the measure, warned of the dire consequences of not funding study to maintain up with China.
“If we do nothing, our days as the dominant superpower may be ending. We don’t mean to let those days end on our watch. We don’t mean to see America become a middling nation in this century,” Schumer mentioned.
Biden praised the bill: “We are in a competition to win the 21st century, and the starting gun has gone off … We cannot risk falling behind.”
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has mentioned the funding could outcome in seven to 10 new U.S. semiconductor plants.
Many U.S. providers praised the bill. General Motors Co mentioned the legislation “represents an important step to address the semiconductor shortage that continues to impact U.S. automotive manufacturing.”
Some critics have likened the Senate funding work to China’s higher-tech industrial development push, dubbed “Made in China 2025,” which extended irked the United States.
The bill also seeks to counter Beijing’s increasing international influence via diplomacy, by working with allies and rising U.S. involvement in international organizations right after Republican former President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda.
Senator Maria Cantwell noted the bill would authorize NASA spending and its Artemis mission to the Moon.
“As China has made it clear, they’re going to Mars, we are going back to the Moon to ready ourselves to go to Mars,” Cantwell mentioned.
(This story has not been edited by TheSpuzz employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)