In this July 16, 2018 file photo, storm clouds gather over Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)

A Republican-led task force in the US House of Representatives unveiled an extensive report to crack down on China weeks before the Nov 3 presidential election, which critics denounced for shifting the public's focus from the government's mishandling of the pandemic.

China has not initiated any aggression upon us. We manufactured the trade war and the tech war to our own detriment. China has not interfered in our domestic affairs. We are interfering with China's right of sovereignty over Taiwan.

Julie Tang, co-founder of Pivot to Peace, an advocacy dedicated to promoting US-China peace

The task force -including 15 House Republicans and chaired by Representative Michael McCaulwas formally launched in May amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The group on Sept 30 unveiled a full report featuring hundreds of recommendations to address issues including national security and the supply chain.

Some US politicians have made cracking down on China a central campaign theme and have targeted Chinese scientists and Chinese companies over so-called national security concerns.

In a post on social media, Representative Andy Barr, a member of the task force, said the report provides a "blueprint" to combat China.

But in responding to Barr's post on social media, people were apparently more focused on the US government's role.

A Twitter user, under the name "Ghost of 1918", asked: "33 days until the election. We have no national plan for COVID-19. Dead Americans that didn't have to be dead except for the utter failure of the (US President Donald) Trump administration."

The world's largest economy, the United States leads the world in numbers of confirmed infections, with more than 7 million, and more than 208,000 deaths.

"Our pandemic is on its third and fourth wave. People are continuing to die. Why didn't the GOP commission set up a comprehensive task force to deal with these pressing domestic problems? Instead they direct their resources at a manufactured threat from China, a threat that does not exist," said Julie Tang, co-founder of Pivot to Peace, an advocacy dedicated to promoting US-China peace.

On the issue of national security, Tang stressed that China hasn't sent any of its aircraft carriers or planes into US territory, not even anywhere near the Pacific Ocean.

"The US has been sending aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines into the South China Sea and Taiwan Straits and flying spy planes off the Taiwan coast within the last two months, directly threatening a war in Asia," she added.

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"China has not initiated any aggression upon us. We manufactured the trade war and the tech war to our own detriment," Tang said. "China has not interfered in our domestic affairs. We are interfering with China's right of sovereignty over Taiwan."

Duties to citizens

Margaret Kimberley, a New York-based writer and activist for peace and justice, said: "We shouldn't be surprised that anti-China sentiment exists in the country while white supremacy is normalized. We cannot allow political parties to demonize other nations, and then express shock when racists here are emboldened."

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Tang was also worried that the task force recommendations suggest war. "There will be no peace if these right-wing political hawks continue to have their way. In moving us closer to war with China, our political leaders have forgotten their duties to the citizens of the US. They have turned their back on our poverty, our racial injustice and our broken healthcare system.

"We need a rational, commonsense approach in our relationship with China－a rising economy and the largest consumer market in this world. There's much to be gained by maintaining a peaceful coexistence. War is not the answer," she said.

liazhu@chinadailyusa.com