Calls for 'punitive' US sanctions against China

US lawmakers called for legislative action today to address a huge trade imbalance with China, reflecting what they described as a growing impatience among US citizens with Beijing’s economic policies.

At a congressional advisory panel, lawmakers also complained of massive Chinese counterfeiting of copyrighted goods that they said hurt American manufacturers. The focus, however, was a soaring US trade deficit with China.

“It is dangerous for our national security. It is dangerous for our economy and we need to do something about it,” Democratic Senator Ben Cardin told the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Yesterday, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told sceptical lawmakers that new high-level talks with China offer the greatest chance of success in reducing the trade deficit.

Lawmakers from both political parties said they believed China would listen to American complaints only if the country faced punitive economic sanctions.

Beijing has also faced criticism this week for the January 11 destruction of a defunct Chinese weather satellite by a warhead fired from a missile.

The test has sparked fury among lawmakers who had been distracted by a fierce debate over US President George Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq.

It has the potential of worsening a host of tensions between the nations.

These include Washington’s pressure on China to support US efforts in the United Nations to punish Iran’s nuclear ambitions, complaints about China’s military build-up and Washington’s charge that China befriends international reprobates to secure sources of energy.

Analysts say that as politicians from both US parties begin to jockey for position in the 2008 elections, China will increasingly enter the political conversation in Washington.

Duncan Hunter, a long-shot Republican candidate for president in 2008, told reporters yesterday that China’s destruction of its satellite was a test of its “ability to blind American capability, with respect to our security apparatus”.

The test, he said, marked a new era of military competition in space with the communist-led country.

Democrats, who wrested control of both chambers of Congress from Republicans in November elections, and some Republicans say the Bush administration is also doing too little to protect Americans from what they call unfair Chinese economic practices.

Paulson, Washington’s point man on economic relations with Beijing, said that it is “in all of our interests to have China keep doing well” economically. “A bump in the road with China would have repercussions for all of us.”