USCC’s Arrogant Report Lacks Ability to Understand China and the World

By Global Times

Nov 19, 2025 10:01 PM

Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC), a body under the US Congress, released its 2025 annual report on Tuesday, once again framing China's normal development in the economic, technological, supply chain and security fields through a lens of excessive securitization. This narrative exposes the commission's deep-seated arrogance and highlights the need for the US to foster a more accurate understanding of China.

To begin with, the USCC's report is built upon a fundamentally flawed narrative framework. "The essence of this annual report is a highly politicized document based on pre-set conclusions," Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times. It is saturated with geopolitical intentions and competitive calculations. Its core purpose is to seek shortcuts for the US in strategic competition with China by shaping a favorable public and policy environment - rather than conducting an objective analysis of China's development and foreign policy. As a result, its credibility and influence are greatly diminished.

The USCC's annual report is always filled with alarmist rhetoric and hostility toward China's development. According to VOA, at Tuesday's Capitol Hill briefing, Commission Chair Reva Price once again resurrected the narrative of "Chinese overcapacity," claiming that China's continued investment in advanced manufacturing "distorts prices and creates supply chain vulnerabilities," warning that China is "weaponizing" critical supply chain segments.

Smearing China's normal industrial upgrading is a denial of a sovereign nation's right to development. China's pursuit of advanced manufacturing is a strategic choice shaped by its national conditions and long-term needs. Underpinning Washington's critique is a deep-rooted hegemonic mindset and a sense of cultural superiority. In this logic, any development path that does not follow US' expectations, any integration into supply chains not aligned with US' preferences, or any refusal to defer to American dominance in rule-making is labeled as deviation, challenge, or threat.

In reality, the party that has been weaponizing supply chains is not China, but the US. From semiconductor equipment blockades and the entity list to long-arm jurisdiction and coercing allies such as the Netherlands and South Korea to take sides in chip supply chains, Washington has already turned technological leadership into a tool of containment, undermining the stability of global industrial chains. In contrast, many of China's supply chain responses are countermeasures against US restrictions. Particularly, China's rare-earth regulations aim to standardize exports, not ban exports, and are designed to safeguard global supply chain stability.

The US also habitually imposes ideological interpretations on normal international cooperation, displaying a lack of respect for other countries. The report claims that China's affordable products in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America "cause unemployment and political instability," attributing the challenges in developing countries to China. This disregards the tangible benefits China has brought to these regions - from jobs and infrastructure to telecommunications, electricity, and manufacturing. Such assessments ignore facts and fail to recognize the predicament of developing countries.

Notably, although the US administration has recently shown a certain degree of flexibility in its China policy - especially as bilateral engagement stabilized following the leaders' meeting - the USCC report reflects how anti-China forces in Congress are once again attempting to reverse this momentum. Similar dynamics have repeatedly played out in China-US interactions: whenever communication stabilizes, domestic forces hostile to China swarm to undermine it. This reveals the complexity and volatility of the US political environment and further underscores the need for Washington to rebuild a correct perception of China.

Ultimately, the USCC report reveals the arrogance and anxiety of a major power struggling to adapt to a changing world. Year after year, it repeats the same talking points, ignores realities, and clings to political prejudice - diminishing its influence both at home and abroad.