China denounces US bill aimed at boosting competitiveness

BEIJING (AP) — Beijing on Wednesday denounced a U.S. bill aimed at boosting U.S. technology in the face of growing competition from China and others, calling it a thinly veiled attack on China’s domestic politics and an attempt to constrain it development.

The Foreign Affairs Committee of China’s ceremonial legislature, the National People’s Congress, issued a scathing statement expressing its “strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition” to the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act,” which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate on Tuesday.

“This bill seeks to exaggerate and spread the so-called ‘China threat' to maintain global American hegemony, using human rights and religion as excuses to interfere in China's domestic politics, and deprive China of its legitimate development rights," the statement said.

“No force should expect that China will swallow any bitter fruit that harms China's sovereignty, security or development interests," it said. It echoed language used by President Xi Jinping, who has adopted an aggressive foreign policy that responds harshly to any perceived attacks on China's reputation.

The statement also attacked provisions of the bill expressing support for Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy that China claims as its own territory; references to Hong Kong, where Beijing is accused of rolling back democracy; and criticism of Chinese policy in the northwestern territory of Xinjiang, the site of mass detentions of minority Muslim groups.

Those and related issues are “purely China's internal affairs and absolutely no foreign interference will be tolerated," the statement said.

At a daily briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said China-related content in the bill was “full of Cold War zero-sum thinking “...