The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party convened a hearing this morning titled "From High Tech to Heavy Steel: Combatting the PRC's Strategy to Dominate Semiconductors, Shipbuilding and Drones." The session featured testimonies from Mr. Adam Bry, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Skydio; Dr. Chris Miller, Professor at Fletcher School at Tufts University and Nonresident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; and Mr. Scott Paul, President of the Alliance for American Manufacturing.
Chairman John Moolenaar commented on the Chinese Communist Party's strategy: “What our witnesses have just attested to is the CCP’s go-to strategy: Building government subsidized monopolies… then dumping overcapacity on global markets to tank prices and drive competitors out of the market, all in the service of the CCP’s interest.”
Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi highlighted concerns about shipbuilding capabilities: “In 1975, we were the world’s number one shipbuilder. Now, we don’t even produce 1 percent of the world’s large oceangoing vessels. For every 359 large container ships China builds, we are building 1.”
Mr. Adam Bry emphasized the importance of addressing current challenges in technology sectors: “We are having this discussion at a critical moment for the drone industry and an inflection point in artificial intelligence. Both of these technologies are at the center of our national security and our competition with China.”
Dr. Chris Miller underscored how semiconductors play a crucial role in U.S.-China competition: “Whether its toys or tractors, whether its ships or drones, whether its military systems or automobiles, we rely more and more on foundational chips to undertake absolutely critical functions.”
Mr. Scott Paul pointed out significant disparities in shipbuilding capacities between China and the United States: “China’s shipbuilding capacity is 232 times greater than our own. This has significant implications for our national security."
Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA) raised concerns about rare earth elements essential for chip manufacturing: “[For] the base components in chip manufacturing… China controls 100% of the world’s source of gallium, 96% of the world’s germanium… We have done nothing in the realm of extraction and refinement of rare earth elements. We are whistling past the graveyard on this.”
Video highlights from today's hearing can be accessed via public broadcast distribution.
