‘China is not our enemy’: US House protesters reflect rising impatience with bipartisan rhetoric

Viewers tuning in to last week’s carefully choreographed hearing of the US select committee on the Chinese Communist Party got a jolt when two protesters interrupted an almost unbroken stream of tough-on-Beijing rhetoric – a disruption all the more striking given recent bipartisan cooperation on China in Washington.

The highly anticipated evening event convened by the newly formed House panel, itself a reflection of alarm within the American government about China’s rise, was but one of about a dozen congressional hearings this year devoted wholly or in large part to the threat posed by Beijing.