This content was originally published by Radio Free Asia, and it is now being reprinted with permission.
Cuts to the U. S. State Department’s 2025 resources proposed by the House of Representatives had been “deadly” and “devastating” to National efforts to counter China’s growing energy in the Indo- Pacific region, two older diplomats told Congress on Thursday.
As part of a cost- cutting campaign, the Republican- led House is pushing appropriations bills that substantially differ from requests made by the Biden administration, including , visible proposals , to reduce Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s quarterly salary completely.
The proposed , 2025 budget , for the State Department is down 11 % from nearly$ 60 billion this year to about$ 52 billion, falling far short of the White House’s 2025 request for$ 64 billion.
It would, for instance, provide only$ 108 million in funding for U. S. led international development projects, rather than the$ 544 million requested by the Biden administration, and only$ 4 million for global economic support, instead of the$ 204 million requested.
Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific, Daniel Kritenbrink, testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on the Indo-Pacific. The proposals do hampered U.S. efforts to combat China’s expanding presence in the region.
” These reductions would become devastating”, Kritenbrink said. It would be devastating to our ability to compete with China [and ] devastating to our ability to continue to offer alternatives to our partners.”
He continued, citing the need for” we to be able to provide substantial advantages and options in network opportunities and connectivity,” noting that nations were weighing their relations to the United States and China on the basis of which was offering more “practical rewards.”
Additionally, cuts to the financing for political engagement could lead to a need to significantly reduce our workforce and presence in the area when we should be stepping up, Kritenbrink said.
U. S. China conflict
The White House has said it” highly opposes” the proposed budget reductions, issuing a , statement , on Monday that accuses House Republicans of “wasting time with political costs” meant to appeal to their base.
The” strong reductions” had “hinder the ability to effectively implement these programs in the Indo- Pacific region, weaken the U. S. political presence around the globe, and lose political and development ground to the People’s Republic of China”, it said.
House Republicans have nonetheless supported the proposal.
Tom Cole, a Republican from Oklahoma and a member of the House Appropriations Committee, described the proposed budget cuts as an attempt to cut unnecessary spending by America’s diplomatic bureaucracy.
This bill prioritizes our nation’s security and cuts unnecessary spending, Cole said in a statement released on Monday.
But at the hearing on Thursday, Michael Schiffer, the assistant administrator for Asia at the U. S. Agency for International Development, said the cuts would reverse hard- earned inroads into countering China’s high- spending diplomacy in the Indo- Pacific.
He noted that the aid organization was working to make its presence known as Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative and that a Pacific mission in Fiji and a PNG office had just been reopened.
” It would be absolutely deleterious”, he said. ” It would be deadly”.
