The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) is a legislative branch commission created by the US Congress in 2000. Its mandate is to monitor, investigate and report to Congress on the national security implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the United States and China. Its annual report to Congress features research, analysis and, if appropriate, recommendations for legislative and administrative action.
The USCC comprises 12 members (described as “bipartisan”), and is chaired by Reva Price with Randall Schriver as her deputy. The majority and minority leaders of the Senate, and the speaker and minority leader of the House of Representatives, appoint three members each to serve two-year renewable terms. The USCC is supported by about 20 staffers (described, unlike the commissioners, as “nonpartisan”).
On Nov 18, in a blaze of publicity, the USCC submitted its 2025 Annual Report to Congress, and it had Hong Kong firmly in its sights. It called, for example, for a crackdown on the city (involving punitive sanctions) because it had become a “global hub for sanctions evasion”. Even though Hong Kong faithfully applies sanctions issued by the United Nations Security Council (if not those imposed unilaterally by particular countries in violation of international law), the USCC suggested that it should lose its status as an official offshore US dollar clearing center if it did not allow the US access to its US dollar Clearing House Automated Transfer System. It also took potshots at Hong Kong’s two national security laws (notwithstanding that the US has at least 21 such laws and administrative orders of its own, many draconian). It claimed, given Beijing had allegedly dismantled its autonomy, that there was no reason for Hong Kong to be treated as a separate entity under US law (paving the way presumably for the closure of the three Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices in the US).
However it is viewed, the report was designed to undermine relations between the US and Hong Kong, which is in the interests of neither. After all, the US has had a trade surplus with Hong Kong of over $270 billion over the past 10 years, the largest among US global trading partners. Moreover, approximately 1,390 US companies operate in Hong Kong, and the US Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong envisages a bright future. The “one country, two systems” policy is benefiting everybody, including the US, and the national security legislation is safeguarding the stability that is essential if businesses are to prosper.
It was, therefore, unsurprising that the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region dismissed the report’s allegations as “groundless”, and that the HKSAR government called upon the US to “discern facts from fallacies”.
Although all this is true, what must be clearly understood is that the report is simply the fruit of a poisoned tree.
The USCC chair, Reva Price, worked for 17 years for Nancy Pelosi, the former House Speaker and a rabid China critic, holding the posts of director of outreach and senior adviser. She learned her craft from Pelosi, and it was Pelosi who appointed her to the USCC in 2023. The impact of Pelosi’s prejudices upon her were profound, as is now becoming apparent to everybody.
When the then-Hong Kong politicians, Anson Chan Fang On-sang, Dennis Kwok Wing-hang, and Charles Mok Nai-kwong, all Beijing-hostile, made their infamous visit to Washington DC in March 2019, it was Pelosi who rolled out the red carpet for them — Kwok said they discussed “key issues” with her. Thereafter, in September 2019, when Joshua Wong Chi-fung, the then-secretary general of Demosisto (which advocated “democratic self-determination for Hong Kong”), visited Washington DC, he was also warmly welcomed by Pelosi, who would have known his political agenda.
Moreover, in May 2020, Pelosi spoke in Congress in favor of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, and disclosed she had appointed an exiled Uygur, Nury Turkel, whom she called “a human rights champion”, to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. This was revelatory, as Turkel, a hero in anti-China circles, served as adviser to successive presidents of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), established in 2004. The WUC has called itself “the sole legitimate organization of the Uyghur people”, and, as Pelosi knew, it wants the Uygur people “to determine their political future” — akin to the secessionist policy once advocated for Hong Kong by Joshua Wong and his cronies.
Thereafter, in June 2022, when Pelosi participated in the 8th World Parliamentarians’ Convention on Tibet (Xizang autonomous region), in Washington DC, she again flaunted her separatist proclivities, calling for the “self-determination” of people in the region.
The USCC is a waste of taxpayers’ money, and it should have been axed in January when the (now defunct) Department of Government Efficiency targeted official waste
This was then followed up with Pelosi’s provocative visit to Taiwan in August 2022, delighting the island’s then leader, Tsai Ing-wen. Emboldened by Pelosi’s presence, Tsai announced she would “firmly uphold our nation’s sovereignty”. Having stirred up a hornets’ nest on Chinese soil, Pelosi even had the brazen effrontery to accuse Beijing of “saber-rattling”.
Such was her delight with Pelosi’s performance and her longstanding support of Taiwan that Tsai decorated her with the Order of Propitious Clouds with Special Grand Cordon (the highest grade of an award established in 1941 to recognize individuals who have made significant contributions to Taiwan).
Throughout her career, Pelosi has adopted anti-China policies that often envisaged splitting up the country. For much of the time, Price was at her side, imbibing her prejudices, promoting her ideas and facilitating her activities. She clearly learned much from her mentor, as the USCC’s report, with its animus toward HKSAR and its hostility toward China, vividly demonstrates.
Indeed, in June 2024, the USCC sent a delegation, including Price (then vice chair), to Taipei, where it met the island’s current leader, Lai Ching-te. Lai told his visitors he looked forward to “Taiwan continuing to receive support from the USCC”. In reply, the then-USCC chair, Robin Cleveland, told Lai that “China is not just aggressive in this region”. She assured Lai that “all of (our) members are very strong supporters of the relationship with Taiwan” (including Price, who was present throughout).
The antecedents of Price’s deputy, Schriver, are no less intriguing. From 2018 to 2019, he served in the US State Department as assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, which included the Taiwan portfolio. Like Pelosi subsequently, he was awarded the Order of Propitious Clouds, by Tsai Ing-wen, for his services to US-Taiwan relations.
Schriver now chairs the Institute for Indo-Pacific Security, and, in this capacity, he visited Taipei in September, where Lai Ching-te welcomed him as “a good friend of Taiwan”. Lai thanked him “for supporting Taiwan” and told him the island “faces China’s political and military intimidation and gray-zone aggression”. In response, Schriver bemoaned Taiwan’s international isolation, including its exclusion from the United Nations, but nonetheless called it “a tremendous regional and global citizen” — which must have been music to Lai’s ears (he may consider upgrading Schriver’s medal to Special Grand Cordon, placing him on a par with Pelosi).
Although the job descriptions of Price and Schriver do not require objectivity, the least the US Congress is entitled to expect of the USCC is honest reporting. Given their close ties to Taiwan over many years and their ill-concealed partisanship, it beggars belief that they are now in a position to oversee what are supposed to be reliable reports on China. Although the latest USCC report will delight Lai and Tsai (who may even have had a hand in its drafting), it will do nothing to assist anybody in the US Congress (or elsewhere) who wants a better understanding of the situation on the ground. The USCC is a waste of taxpayers’ money, and it should have been axed in January when the (now defunct) Department of Government Efficiency targeted official waste.
The author is a senior counsel and law professor, and was previously the director of public prosecutions of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
