The U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs heard from leaders with the State and Commerce Departments and international development agencies on how they are “Combatting the Generational Challenge of CCP Aggression” during a hearing on Feb. 28.
“There’s no doubt that the growing aggression of the Chinese Communist Party poses a generational threat to the United States from using a spy balloon to surveil some of America’s most sensitive military sites to their theft of upwards of $600 billion of American IP every year,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the committee chairman, said at the hearing.
Ranking member Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), said the committee must be at the forefront in positioning the U.S. to succeed in its strategic competition with China.
“An effective China strategy is one that invests in the strengths and that leverages our strengths, and one that does not exaggerate the threats we face,” Meeks said.
Daniel Kritenbrink, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said China is the only competitor with the intent and the economic, diplomatic, military and technological capability to reshape the international order.
He said when Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Wang Yi, the director of the Chinese Communist Party Central Foreign Affairs, at the Munich Security Conference Feb. 18, Blinken said violation of U.S. sovereignty with surveillance balloons will not be tolerated and warned about the consequences if China provides Russia with material support or helps Putin evade sanctions in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“We will continue standing up to PRC threats and provocations whether in the South and East China Seas or across the Taiwan Strait," Kritenbrink said in the hearing, "to its economic coercion aimed at partners in Asia, Oceania, Europe and elsewhere, and to China’s attempts to undercut U.S. and allied technological advantages and exploit our cutting-edge technologies to advance the People’s Liberation Army military modernization.”
Alan Estevez, Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security, testified at the hearing that China wants to reshape the international order in its favor and spoke about the Commerce Department's new controls for advanced computing in semiconductor manufacturing.
“We added new controls on certain high capability chips, components going into PRC supercomputers, semiconductor tools, and items going into the PRC’s advanced fabrication facilities, or fabs,” Estevez said.
Scott Nathan, CEO of the U.S. International Development Finance Corp., said the Build Act that launched the DFC just over three years ago enabled it to better pursue the dual mission Congress gave it to focus on making a positive development impact in the poorest countries of the world and advancing the strategic interests of the United States.
“Unlike the development approach of the PRC, which often burdens countries with unsustainable sovereign level debt," Nathan said, "DFC’s efforts are directed towards supporting private entities, mobilizing private capital, and through that activity, building resilient market economies.”
Michael Schiffer, Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for Asia for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), said that the PRC under Xi Jinping has a hyper-nationalist authoritarian rule.
“With congressional support and necessary resources, we can drive development diplomacy that elevates democratic norms, and supports a vision for rules-based international order, congruent with our nation’s interests and values,” he said.
McCaul sent a letter last week to Rashad Hussain, the State Department's Ambassador-at-Large at the Office of International Religious Freedom, and Julieta Valls Noyes, assistant secretary of the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, in which he asked the United States government to protect a the Mayflower Church, a group of Chinese dissidents that fled religious persecution in China and is awaiting refugee status in Thailand.
“I am highly concerned about the PRC’s growing influence in Southeast Asia and its ability to compel the repatriation of Chinese citizens who have sought refugee status,” McCaul stated. “Religious freedom, and its protection abroad, are essential interests of our nation."
McCaul also spoke of the "unholy alliance" between Chinese President Xi Jingping and Russian President Vladimir Putin on a Feb. 26 appearance on ABC’s “This Week” with Martha Raddatz, where he also discussed his recent visit to Ukraine and the possibility of China invading Taiwan.
