WASHINGTON, D.C.—In an op-ed published by Newsweek, Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) urges Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping to dismantle the barriers to internet access in China. Tomorrow morning, the Select Committee will host a hearing titled "The Great Firewall and the CCP’s Export of its Techno-Authoritarian Surveillance State."
Read Chairman Moolenaar's op-ed in Newsweek or continue below:
"When General Secretary Xi Jinping was in San Francisco last fall, he declared that America and China 'must not erect barriers' between one another. He can be true to his word by tearing down the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) Great Firewall.
The Great Firewall is a dystopian censorship regime designed to advance near-total societal control over the Chinese people. With an army of censors boosted by artificial intelligence and the assistance of cutting-edge technology, it monitors all information and expression within China, enabling the CCP to rapidly stamp out unapproved speech while referring violations to the police.
The Great Firewall inhibits contact between Chinese citizens and the outside world. Information is stopped from flowing into China and the Chinese people are not allowed to get information out. Facebook, X, Instagram, and YouTube are blocked. Behind the Great Firewall, the CCP has the Chinese people trapped in a parallel reality where they are fed a steady stream of propaganda tightly controlled by Xi's authoritarian regime.
The CCP has turned the internet, designed as a tool of freedom, into the ultimate tool of control. And as it has grown more powerful, the Party has only expanded its ambition to maintain total control—physically, economically, politically, culturally, and intellectually. In fact, despite spending historic amounts on a massive military buildup, the CCP still spends more on internal security than it does on its military.
But the CCP's quest for control does not stop at China's borders. The CCP is rapidly exporting its surveillance technology abroad, enabled by state-backed champions like Huawei, Hikvision, and ZTE. It has found plenty of buyers.
From the tyrannical Nicolás Maduro regime in Venezuela to the ayatollahs of Iran, the CCP exports its malign technologies to help authoritarian governments control the internet and oppress their populations. Not only does this undermine human rights globally but by creating a network of pro-CCP governments that increasingly owe their hold on power to the CCP, it also threatens America's national security.
Over the last year and a half, the Select Committee on the CCP has worked tirelessly to champion the rights of the Chinese people to speak freely. We have held hearings where dissidents and Chinese students described violent threats they have faced right here in the United States, and we have called loudly for an end to their oppression. We have tried to break down barriers between Chinese and American people that Xi claims to care so much about but The Great Firewall stands in way.
Tomorrow,the Select Committee will again champion rights of Chinese people.We will hold hearing on The Great Firewall&ways we can expose Chinese people 'irresistible power unarmed truth',phrase first used Russian author Boris Pasternak&repeated former President Ronald Reagan 1988 dream for people trapped behind Iron Curtain
CCP fears that power &spends tens billions dollars global propaganda censorship control it.We should set free—and give unfettered access truth.This means countering censorship honest info&fighting export surveillance tech worldwide.It also means ensuring transparency home.Whether Hollywood Silicon Valley college campuses,censorship no place America
What fears most is learning truth—truth about Uyghurs,Taiwan,Tiananmen Square,COVID-19,economy corruption—and worst all itself Why? For one reason only—They know rule built lie only Party speak
To make good promises San Francisco,Xi should heed Reagan advice different general secretary tear firewall.As Reagan observed Berlin,'This wall will fall.For cannot withstand faith;cannot withstand truth.wall cannot withstand freedom.'
What true walls concrete barbed wire true walls code.I invite join Select Committee tomorrow discuss how repeat success ensure once again freedom victor."
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