Hi China Watchers. This week we unpack how congressional primary races are weaponizing "China threat" rhetoric. We'll also giggle-test lawmakers' moves to defund the IOC, check what chance the WHO has at another China "Covid origins" probe and dunk on George Washington University's president. Your reward for scrolling to the bottom: our latest China book pick in the new "One Book, Three Questions" section. Got a book to recommend? Tell me about it at pkine@politico.com . Let's get to it. — Phelim Congressional candidates have a new electoral purity test: who hates China the most. Witness the Pennsylvania GOPSenate primary race where TV medical personality MEHMET OZ ("Dr. Oz") and hedge funder DAVID MCCORMICK are making each other's Chinese-related business investments and past public statements a key platform plank. A similar China slugfest is unfolding in the GOP Senate primary in Missouri. Those contests are likely bellwethers for how U.S. politicians weaponize growing U.S. public antipathy toward China as a campaign focus in the 2022 midterms and the 2024 presidential race. The strong anti-China rhetoric from some candidates, Asian American lawmakers warn, could fuel growing anti-Asian hate crimes. "There's a lot of [bipartisan] consensus around being 'tough on China' … [and] it's an issue ripe for pointing out hypocrisy," Republican strategist ALEX CONANT told China Watcher. "What makes this unusual is that you see [congressional] primary campaigns digging into a foreign policy issue [because] normally primary campaigns are fought over domestic issues like the economy." China's utility as a domestic political weapon has flourished over the past decade. President BARACK OBAMA countered Republican challenger MITT ROMNEY's criticism of Obama's China policy in 2012 by capitalizing on a New York Times exposé of Romney's China-linked business interests. Obama's Deputy Campaign Manager STEPHANIE CUTTER calledthe revelation "Romney's utter hypocrisy on China." President DONALD TRUMP made China a centerpiece of his 2016 campaign, decrying the Chinese government's systematic harm to the U.S. through unfair trade practices, currency manipulation and cyberattacks on U.S. corporations. Trump skated past evidence of his own extensive business dealings in China and in 2019 called for Beijing to probe unfounded allegations that JOE BIDEN's son, HUNTER BIDEN, had leveraged his relationship with his father to secure Chinese investment in his private equity firm. "For candidates looking for something on the foreign policy front that may resonate [with voters], China's the obvious choice both because of the disproportionate percentage of Republicans who believe that China's a significant threat and because of the increase overall in a sort of [public] China consciousness," said RICHARD FONTAINE , chief executive officer of the Center for a New American Security. "It's just a sign of the times of how Americans are thinking about these things and [dislike of China] is one of the few things that people generally agree on." Oz and McCormick's battle for Pennsylvania Republicans' votes hinges on painting their opponent as financially and ideologically compromised through past China dealings. Oz has drilled down on McCormick's former company , Bridgewater Associates, which manages three investment funds and an investment advisory operation in China. "Beijing's favorite candidate, David McCormick, has outsourced American jobs and he's made millions investing in China in partnership with the CCP [Chinese Communist Party]," Oz's Communications Director BRITTANY YANICK told China Watcher in a statement. McCormick's campaign has retaliated by noting that "The Dr. Oz Show" had a lucrative product promotional agreement with Usana Health Sciences, a company whose largest single market is China. "[McCormick] has gone toe-to-toe with China his whole life and is the only candidate with real experience standing up to the Chinese Communist Party," JESS SZYMANSKI, McCormick's campaign communications director, said. There's a similar dynamic in Missouri's GOP Senate primary, where leading rivals are calling their opponents soft on China. Political action committees supporting the leading contenders in the primary, Missouri's Attorney General ERIC SCHMITT and former Gov. ERIC GREITENS, released dueling campaign videos Wednesday that slammed the opposing candidate's record of engagement with China. Both videos single out policy initiatives and activities once routine for state politicians but are now pitched as suspect or disloyal. The Greitens PAC video calls out Schmitt for his support as state senator in 2011 of the St. Louis Lambert International Airport Aerotropolis "China Hub" designed to make the city the axis of air cargo between China and the Midwest. The ad's kicker: "Eric Schmitt: Good for China. Bad for Missouri." The Schmitt PAC video slams Greitens for an appearance on Chinese state television during an official visit to Beijing while governor in 2017. The ad's kicker: "Eric Greitens: Good for China. Bad for Missouri." Meanwhile, three of the other candidates — MARK MCCLOSKEY, a St. Louis-based lawyer, and U.S. Reps. VICKY HARTZLER and BILLY LONG — say that China is bent on "global domination" with Long going so far during an interview with China Watcher as to link the CCP to the rise of critical race theory and "cancel culture" in the U.S. They say that messaging resonates with an electorate sensitized to China issues by debate over the origins of COVID-19, the impact of industrial outsourcing to China and growing China-Taiwan military tensions. That rhetoric has attracted the attention of the Chinese government. "We are not interested in the electoral politics in the United States, but we firmly oppose some politicians hyping up 'China threat' in their campaigns to gain attention and votes," LIU PENGYU , spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., said in an emailed statement. "These remarks cannot fully represent the American people's attitude toward China [and] we hope these politicians can have a correct stance and a rational view of China's development and China-U.S. relations." Exploiting candidates' perceived China weaknesses for political gain is likely to become a bipartisan campaign tool, political analysts say. "I could see it going to the [Democratic] side of the aisle [but] probably in lesser doses, just because the perception of China threat is less acute on the Democratic side than the Republican side," Fontaine said. "But assuming that the relationship between the United States and China only gets frostier … then I think that will increasingly be a political issue." Pew Research Center survey data published in March, which revealed that almost nine out of 10 U.S. adults view China "as hostile or a danger to U.S. interests," suggests an advantage to campaigns that paint opponents as historically or financially compromised by China ties. "There's no question China's going to be a major topic in the [2022 and 2024] campaigns, but we have yet to see whether it's a salient one," said Conant. "Do [China-related] political ads actually move voters? Time will tell but normally, foreign policy is not what energizes voters." Meanwhile, Asian American watchdogs and advocates blame anti-China rhetoric for soaring levels of violence over the past two years. Details released this week of an unpublished study by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, indicated that hate crimes targeting Asian Americans soared 339 percent in 2021. "Being specific about challenges and opportunities with China is what we expect from a campaign that wants to inform voters and make a case for their election, but too often, the rhetoric is vague and xenophobic, simply reduced to 'tough on China,' which is the kind of rhetoric we know has led to anti-Asian violence here at home," said Rep. JUDY CHU (D-Calif.), chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. "China is absolutely going to be a focus in the coming election cycle … [and] the more candidates decide they want to rely on Cold War-style rhetoric, telling Americans they should live in existential fear of China, the more Asian Americans will be hurt as a direct consequence," Chu added. TRANSLATING WASHINGTON — TRUMP'S PHASE ONE FAILURE: Trade statistics for 2021 confirm that the Chinese government failed to fulfill its goods purchase obligations under Trump's U.S.-China Phase One trade deal. "China bought none of the additional $200 billion of exports Trump's deal had promised," an analysis by CHAD BOWN, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, revealed Tuesday. — COMMISSION: CHINA SUPPLYING ILLICIT OPIOID TRADE: The Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking's long-anticipated report Tuesday urged China to tackle the production and export of precursor and pre-precursor chemicals processed into synthetic opioids and smuggled to the U.S. by Mexican cartels. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson ZHAO LIJIAN dismissed the report's conclusions Wednesday as "blame shifting." — RUBIO, MENENDEZ PUSH FOR HEMISPHERIC DEFENSE: Sens. MARCO RUBIO (R-Fla.) and BOB MENENDEZ (D-N.J.) unveiled legislation Monday aimed to protect Latin America and the Caribbean from threats, including "malign activities of state actors like China and Russia." The Western Hemisphere Security Strategy Act of 2022 will boost "bilateral and multilateral security cooperation" in the region. "The bill hits the key areas … [and] makes timely the public debate … about whether the posture and trade-offs of the [Biden] administration in responding to threats and supporting our partners, while applying pressure on issues, such as corruption and human rights, are the right ones," ROBERT EVAN ELLIS, Latin America research professor with the U.S. Army War College, told China Watcher. — U.N. AMBASSADOR: UYGHUR OLYMPIAN 'TO DISTRACT': The Chinese government's use of the Uyghur Muslim athlete DINIGEER YILAMUJIANG to light the Olympic flame Friday aimed "to distract us from the real issue … that Uyghurs are being tortured, and Uyghurs are the victims of human rights violations," LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday. Chinese Foreign Ministry's Zhaoshot back on Monday that Yilamujiang's role reflected China as "a big family boasting ethnic unity." — SCOTT, WALTZ THREATEN IOC TAX STATUS: Sen. RICK SCOTT (R-Fla.) and Rep. MICHAEL WALTZ (R-Fla.) last week introduced legislation to strip the International Olympic Committee of its tax exemption for failing to adequately respond to international concerns about China's human rights record. The bill mirrors legislation Waltz introduced in the House with Rep. JENNIFER WEXTON (D-Va.) last month. "I believe this is all posturing and is purely optics," VICTOR MATHESON, professor of sports economics at College of the Holy Cross, told China Watcher. "The IOC is a Swiss organization, and they wouldn't be paying U.S. corporate taxes anyway … and they probably have almost no U.S. property that could be taxed in other ways."
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