US congress feels Chinese influence

• Source: Global Times
• [01:25 January 11 2010]
• Comments

"US congressmen only care about the votes they gain," Anders Powell, a professor of media studies at Stockholm University in Sweden, told the Global Times. "When mainstream media in the US is talking about China's influence inside US congress, it illustrates that US politicians have become aware that China can affect the votes behind them."

"I've heard of some Chinese lobbying or public relations programs (in the US congress), but I didn't know that China had been so successful," said Jonathan Stewart, an American expert with a Chinese lobbying firm specializing in supporting American companies' interests in China, who spoke after reading the report.

But Stewart said, "Politicians are taking risks by helping China," because to judge whether China's lobbying is successful will depend on whether the American public is persuaded, or the public can remove their representatives if they disagree.

One more important thing is that the US slowly understands that China is growing more and more powerful, and China is not "the world's factory" any longer, Stewart said, stressing the fact that China owns a lot of US debt.

However, there are also lots of issues that China and the US won't compromise on, such as selling arms to Taiwan, a move that China believes has hurt its "core interests."

"So they can only engage one another (over disagreements) and cooperate in the areas where they have shared interests," Stewart added.

Agencies contributed to this story