The U.S. should bolster its ability to deter a Chinese attack against Taiwan and strengthen its oversight of Chinese companies as it faces an increasingly "triumphalist” and "aggressive” China, a bipartisan panel told Congress on Wednesday.
A 539-page report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission — created by Congress specifically to track and anticipate threats from China — said the Chinese Communist Party’s assertive behavior was likely to intensify as the country’s leaders confront a gap between triumphalist rhetoric at home and challenges from growing debt to technological dependence on the U.S. and criticism of its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Regardless of how China’s internal and external environments develop, the CCP’s aggressive posture will likely harden further as Chinese leaders confront the tensions between their rhetoric and their challenges,” the panel said. "The CCP is now likely to react in an aggressive manner either in order to defend itself against perceived threats or to press perceived advantages.”