US Lawmakers Attack China Ahead of Nov. Elections

China is once again the country Congress loves to hate.

Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., speaks with reporters at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Monday, March 8,...

Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., speaks with reporters at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Monday, March 8, 20201, after accompanying President Barack Obama on Air Force One to Arcadia University in Glenside, Pa., where he spoke about health care reform. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

(AP)

After a lull last year, U.S. politicians jockeying ahead of crucial November elections have stepped up attacks on China as a way to win support from voters worried that the Asian power is taking American jobs.

China-bashing eased during President Barack Obama's first year in office, partly as a nod to the administration's attempts to get Chinese help settling nuclear standoffs with North Korea and Iran and important environmental and economic initiatives.

Now with little to show from Obama's charm offensive and a looming make-or-break election, lawmakers want tough action against what manufacturers say is a Chinese currency policy that hurts millions of American workers by making Chinese products cheaper and U.S. products more expensive.

In the latest example of seeking a more forceful approach to China, four senators on Monday sent Obama a letter urging him against giving Beijing special treatment in Iran sanctions legislation that the House and Senate are now putting together.

The letter was in response to reports that the administration, now trying to get China and other U.N. Security Council members to go along with a new round of international sanctions against Iran, wanted to exempt the five permanent members of the Security Council from legislation being crafted by Congress.

China, one of the five, is a main investor in Iran's energy sector and "such exemptions would also make it easier for countries like China to undermine international efforts to sanction companies that support key sectors of Iran's economy," wrote Sens. Charles Schumer and Barbara Mikulski, both Democrats, and Sens. Jon Kyl and Richard Burr, both Republicans.

U.S.-China ties are already battered following the recent announcement of a multibillion dollar U.S. arms sale to Chinese rival Taiwan and a meeting between Obama and the Dalai Lama, revered by millions but accused by Beijing of pushing for Tibetan independence. Attacks on China might add more irritation to a relationship the White House portrays as the world's most important, and most complicated.