Never in human history has the legislature of a country dedicated a whole week to debating and rushing through dozens of pieces of legislation specifically targeting another country.

Yet history is being made in the United States: The House of Representatives has ushered in “China Week”, this week, for deliberating and passing as many as 28 pieces of legislation, all of which, according to the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, are intended “to protect Americans against the military, economic, ideological, and technological threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party”, including the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office Certification Act passed on Tuesday.  

Intriguingly, this rhetoric uttered by the House Select Committee at the launch of “China Week”, as well as that by its chairman John Moolenaar about the “growing threat” posed by the CPC, is reminiscent of the kind of call to arms usually heard in Hollywood science fiction movies. By the way, Moolenaar is the architect of “China Week”.      

Indeed, the omnipresent “China threat” narratives in the bills having been, or being, pushed through in “China Week” go so far beyond common sense that only Hollywood sci-fi movie scriptwriters should have been capable of producing them. No wonder that the US Congress’ “China Week” madness has amazed people around the world.  

Among the targets of those bills are the Confucius Institutes that promote Chinese traditional culture and Confucianism in the US, which are accused of posing national security risks to the US. By the logic of US politicians, American culture exported to hundreds of countries around the world through channels including Hollywood movies and educational institutions must have posed serious national security risks to many countries, including China — indeed, hundreds of thousands of Chinese students have received education at US universities over the past several decades and have then returned to China.     

This notion is inarguable; after all, US politicians count on grandstanding ploys to win votes. But the underlying factor behind the “China Week” madness and Washington’s other China-bashing strategies is a kind of collective paranoia about a rising China taking over the US’ global hegemony

China-made cranes operating in US ports are also targeted by US lawmakers for posing “national security risks” to the country. This accusation is reminiscent of the wild imaginings of former UK diplomat Charles Parton, who said in a report submitted to the British government early last year that Chinese-made cars, refrigerators and even light bulbs could be used to spy on people; or of the uneducated claim by US Republican Senator Rick Scott, who in a December 2023 letter to the US commerce secretary called for a government investigation into the impact on national security of garlic imports from China, highlighting “a severe public health concern over the quality and safety of garlic grown in foreign countries — most notably, garlic grown in Communist China”.

This same paranoid thinking underpins the allegation that China poses a “military threat” to the US, as the House Select Committee stated on its website for “China Week”, notwithstanding the fact that around 750 US military bases are operating in some 80 countries and colonies around the world, of which more than 300 are located in East Asia, encircling or targeting China and all the maritime chokepoints vital to China’s sea transportation; whereas China has set up only one support base, in Djibouti, the main function of which is to serve the Chinese warships fighting piracy in the Gulf of Aden.

Observers and commentators generally associate “China Week” with US domestic politics — specifically the upcoming US general election in early November, when the next president and vice-president will be elected. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 34 of the 100 seats in the Senate, and 13 state and territorial governorships will also be contested.

This notion is inarguable; after all, US politicians count on grandstanding ploys to win votes. But the underlying factor behind the “China Week” madness and Washington’s other China-bashing strategies is a kind of collective paranoia about a rising China taking over the US’ global hegemony.   

The author is a current affair commentator. 

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.