US lawmakers have introduced a bill that seeks to change how the government refers to Xi Jinping, the leader of China, and would prohibit calling him “president”, instead referring to him by his official titles, The Telegraph reported.

The bill would specifically block the use of federal funds to create or disseminate official government documents or communications that refer to Xi as “president,” as that would confer unwarranted legitimacy to a leader who is not democratically elected.

While the bill is unlikely to progress very far, it does reflect a shift already occurring in the US government in how officials refer to Xi.

Senior government officials, including US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, have begun calling him the general secretary of the Communist Party of China in broader efforts to differentiate the Communist government from the Chinese public.

The legislation was introduced by Scott Perry, a Republican congressman from Pennsylvania who has in recent months brought forward a spate of bills directed at China.

His bills have proposed rejecting China’s territorial claims in the East and South China Sea, to recognize Tibet as a country, and to hold China accountable for “deceitful and deceptive actions” at the World Health Organization over coronavirus.