The fervent China-bashing that took hold during the United States campaign season may die down now that midterm elections have ended. But with bipartisan frustration in the US with China's economic policies and suspicion about its military build-up, it is unlikely that the wave of Republican wins will bring big changes in policy.
Republicans took sweeping control of the House in Tuesday's midterm elections, while Democrats retained a slender grip on the Senate.
China became a popular cudgel on the campaign trail, as both Democrats and Republican candidates accused their opponents of supporting trade policies that favoured Chinese jobs.
But the ads did not succeed. In Pennsylvania, congressman Joe Sestak, a Democrat, accused his opponent Pat Toomey, a free-trade advocate, of 'fighting for jobs. In China.' Toomey won the race. In West Virginia, Democrat Spike Maynard failed in his bid to unseat congressman Nick Rahall, whom he attacked for outsourcing jobs in an ad that played Chinese music and flashed a picture of Chairman Mao Zedong .
The tone of the discussion on China will improve, says Stephen Orlins, president of the National Committee on US-China Relations.
'The 30-second soundbite blaming China for America's economic woes should disappear,' Orlins says, 'and beginning January 20 the newly-elected House and Senate should address the real issues in the US-China relationship, namely co-operation on North Korea, Iran, terrorism and climate change.'
But with a divided Congress and a Democrat in the White House, it is unclear what will actually be accomplished in terms of legislation that might affect China, says Richard Bush, a former US intelligence officer and the director for Northeast Asian policy studies at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. 'There's going to be a lot of gridlock, and that applies to both domestic policy and foreign policy,' Bush said.
