Current State of Affairs with China
Floor Speech
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Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak a little bit about the current state of affairs with respect to our relationship with China and our Nation's response to it. I do so at a time when I am yet again sitting in an empty House Chamber, as I often am when I am speaking here because we don't really have debate here on the floor of the House, even when it is on important topics.
We had votes today, for example, on 12 of what we call suspension bills. Tomorrow, we are likely to have votes on another, I don't know, five or six suspension bills while we wait with bated breath as to whether or not our colleagues on the other side of the aisle will produce the ever-waited-for legislation to further cripple our economy, spiral us into massive amounts of debt, raise inflation, pay people not to work, disrupt the supply chain. We are all waiting around while my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are literally fighting over which horrible bill they can unleash upon the American people.
It is really quite extraordinary if you think about it. The people's House, we are sitting here debating, oh, well, are we going to have a $1\1/2\ trillion disastrous bill or a $3 trillion disastrous bill? Are we going to play games and cut that $3 trillion bill in half by cutting the time in half with the same disastrous policies? But that is precisely what my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are doing.
Meanwhile, China is preparing to kick our rear ends. We are all sitting here playing tiddlywinks, fumbling around, talking about climate change and diversity quotas and chief diversity officers, and China is actually preparing to kick our rear ends.
Recently, as many of my colleagues know, China tested a nuclear- capable hypersonic glide vehicle, carried on a rocket, that flew low- orbit space, circling the globe before speeding toward its target, only missing by about 24 miles, a test that was reported to have ``stunned'' the United States military.
Well, that is concerning both because of the capabilities of the Chinese and the fact that our U.S. military was stunned. Both of those two things are concerning.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Milley, interrupting no doubt a particularly enthralling session of diversity, equity, and inclusion over at the Department of Defense at the Pentagon, bolted out from that really important session and said in an interview that the Chinese military was expanding rapidly, and the recent missile test is close to a Sputnik moment.
Indeed, this test comes after recent revelations that China has constructed and is making significant progress in developing at least 250 new missile silos at as many as three locations across China, fueling a rapid nuclear buildup.
In the wake of Biden's disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, China is increasingly willing to increase hostilities toward Taiwan. Just last week, Taiwan's President said the threat from China is growing every day. She said: ``When authoritarian regimes demonstrate expansionist tendencies, democratic countries should come together to stand against them. Taiwan is on the front lines.'' This is a nation of 23 million people opposed to communism.
Where is President Biden? Where is this Congress? Where are my Democratic colleagues? Wrestling around with their $2 or $3 trillion spendathons but not doing anything to help us figure out how to send a signal to the world that we are going to stand alongside Taiwan and, more importantly, that we are going to be strong for America against a rising Chinese military.
Biden recently said the United States' commitment to Taiwan was ``rock solid,'' but China is calling his bluff. And why shouldn't they after the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan?
By the way, it is thanks to Taiwan that the world was alerted to the coronavirus. On December 31, Taiwan's CDC reported warnings of the virus' human-to-human transmission to the World Health Organization in an email. This is back at the beginning of the pandemic.
January 3 of that year, CDC Director Robert Redfield sent an email to the director of the Chinese CDC, formally offering to send U.S. experts to China.
January 5, CDC Director Redfield sent another email to the Chinese CDC director, formally offering to send U.S. experts.
The WHO even helped China cover the threat.
On January 14, the World Health Organization tweeted: ``Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus.''
February 24, Nancy Pelosi encouraged individuals to come to San Francisco's Chinatown.
We can go on and on, but China got busy continuing their coverup, even kicking out journalists in 2020. And now what do we know? We now know that there was gain-of-function research going on; America was funding it. And now we see precisely what was going on in Wuhan, what was going on in China, and America's involvement with it.
The fact of the matter is, China is serious, and we are not.
Let's talk about coal for a minute. China's not taking part in the climate hysterics currently taking place in Glasgow and is not undercutting its own supply of reliable energy like we are. Why might that be? Because China knows they need reliable power to kick our rear ends while we sit around fumbling around with a President of the United States taking cold baths in Scotland.
According to Time, China is planning to build 43 new coal plants while we are rapidly decommissioning coal plants here at home--not advancing clean-burning natural gas, not moving nuclear power. No, no, no, we like to live out in unicorn land where we are going to have nothing but wind and solar powering up our entire grid. That has not been working out so well for us.
All so we can go down this fiction that we are going to drive down CO
The Chinese are using that coal to produce the manufactured goods we consume in the United States, including 80 percent of our solar panels.
By the way, the rare earth materials we just gave up in Afghanistan by abandoning Bagram means we can't even compete on that stage even if you want to live in unicorn land where my colleagues on the other side of the aisle do, where you can have all your power come from solar and wind in the year 2021.
Literally, my colleagues are in a dispute and a fight about how crazy green can the infrastructure bill they want to advance or the reconciliation package they advance be.
Meanwhile, China leads the world in emissions, but they got 43 coal- fired plants tuned up. But what do all these geniuses over in Scotland do? Well, China has promised they won't build coal-fired plants in other parts of the world.
You literally can't make up how stupid a leadership of a country could possibly be than what we currently have in this country.
Let me see if I can come up with every possible way to weaken our country, every possible way to make this country exposed on the world stage. I don't think I can come up with a better plan than what the current administration and my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and this body are doing.
I think it would be a great contest. What could they do that is worse than driving us into energy poverty, taking away our ability to compete on the worldwide stage, developing clean-burning natural gas, exporting that, instead of literally having the President of the United States currently begging OPEC to open up more oil and more energy supplies?
I am not even sure how you can put into words how unbelievably pathetic it is for the United States of America to be on the world stage begging for energy supplies when we sit on a bed of fossil fuels that we can use to power this world. We have all the technology in the world to develop nuclear power, yet we are not doing it.
Meanwhile, China is importing 800,000 barrels of Iranian crude per day. Well, isn't that great?
We have already talked about that the President is hanging out over in Scotland taking cold water baths, mumbling unintelligibly about antitrust and animals--I couldn't even understand the speech today-- while congressional Democrats are in a death fight over their trillions of dollars in spending.
Most troubling of all, our Department of Defense is in a race, but it is not in a race to beat China; it is not in a race to beat Iran or to stand next to Israel or make sure we have the strongest fighting force in the world. No, no, the brilliance of the brass over at the Pentagon and the Democratic leadership in the White House and in this body and in the Senate, it is in a race to train our soldiers the finer points of critical race theory and climate ideology. I mean, you really can't even make this stuff up.
It has been 64 days since President Biden's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, and there still has been zero accountability for the President, Secretary Austin, NSA Advisor Jake Sullivan, and General Milley.
Do we ever talk in this body? How many times do we come down here and emote about whatever horror has gone on in the world? We do it all the time. Have we talked about the drone strike that killed 10 people, including 7 children, something that would largely qualify as a war crime? Where are my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, coming down here and beating their chests about the horrors of war crimes? Oh, I remember what they were saying when President Bush was in office in the wake of 9/11. I remember all the protests. Where are the protests for this dead family?
Is this the robust, over-the-horizon counterterrorism strategy that they like to hawk and talk about so much that the American people are supposed to trust?
There is an unknown number of American citizens--I can read reports of over 100, 200, 400--still stranded in Afghanistan. Thirteen marines were killed, as we know.
Madam Speaker, $85 billion worth of U.S. taxpayer-funded defense assets, the Taliban have some number of those--access to a biometric database of our Afghan allies, control of the over $800 million United States Embassy in Kabul. Bagram Airfield, here, go ahead, take it.
Now President Biden plans to send an additional $144 million to Afghanistan. For what?
But it is not only just abandoning Afghanistan; it is empowering the Taliban.
Now our other adversaries: Hamas praised the Taliban for causing the American downfall in Afghanistan and said: ``We congratulate the Muslim Afghan people for the defeat of the American occupation on all Afghan lands, and we congratulate the Taliban movement and its brave leadership.''
China capitalized on it, saying ``a lesson that Taiwan needs to learn.''
Where are my colleagues on the other side of the aisle? Do they care?
Iran is set to hold a series of war drills with Russia and China. All of this is happening right now.
Again, my Democratic colleagues are talking about socialism and race division and gender equality. They don't even like the word ``equality'' anymore. It has to be ``equity.''
President Biden is appeasing Iran and walking away from Israel. Biden refuses to stand up to Iran, attempting to rejoin the failed Iran nuclear deal.
On October 8, the Biden administration lifted sanctions on two Iranian entities involved in military missile programs. Over the last 3 months, a report showed that China imported nearly 800,000 barrels of Iranian crude, like I mentioned before. And now we are refusing to stand by Israel, our closest ally in the Middle East.
The Biden administration wants to reopen the United States Consulate General in Jerusalem to provide separate diplomatic outreach to the Palestinians, directly undermining Jerusalem as Israel's eternal capital. Rejoining the Israel-hating United Nations Human Rights Council, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle don't care, and funneling millions of dollars into UNRWA that continues to undermine the very existence of Israel.
Now Congress, in its infinite wisdom--both sides of the aisle, by the way, my colleagues on my side of the aisle, two-thirds of whom are guilty of this as well--is saying we need to not only give the Pentagon their NDAA, National Defense Authorization Act, their authorization, we ought to give them another $25 billion of authorization.
We are not going to get anything out of Milley. We are not going to get anything out of Austin. We are not going to get the brass down here and say what in the world happened in Afghanistan, or can you explain what you are doing with all of your chief diversity officers and climate education? No, no, we are just going to throw them a whole bunch more money.
Again, to my Republican colleagues and to my constituents and to all Americans: This isn't done yet. Make sure your Senators and your Members of Congress know precisely how you feel about authorizing a massive defense authorization that gives more money to the Department of Defense with no accountability for Afghanistan and that drafts our daughters.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, in the infinite wisdom of your leaders in Congress and in this administration, the plan is to have our 18-year- old girls--including my daughter, who is 10--have to go down and go sign up for Selective Service.
Most Americans I talk to don't want that. They sure as heck don't want that buried in a whatever-thousand-page bill of $800 billion of defense spending.
But respectfully, where are my colleagues on this side of the aisle on this? Two-thirds of this group voted for this bill because, Oh, we can't not support the Pentagon.
Well, why can't we not support the Pentagon when the Pentagon is not actually running a military designed to blow things up and kill people the way it needs to, in a world where China wants to do us harm, Iran wants to do us harm, Iran wants to do Israel harm, and we are going to focus on adding women to the draft without so much as a debate on this floor or in the Senate? We are going to include gun-grabbing, red flag laws to take guns away from our servicemen and women, causing them usually to go hide it, not go seek mental health, not go get the help they might need.
We are going to promote a radical Green New Deal agenda, including a sense of Congress that DOD should select electric or zero-emission models when purchasing new, noncombat vehicles; requiring the Secretary of Defense to submit to Congress their plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; praising the Intergovernmental Planet on Climate Change; creating a pilot program on the use of sustainable aviation fuel.
But they are promoting a woke agenda in the Department of Defense. Requiring the Department of Defense to hire and train gender advisors, including creating an Office of Countering Extremism, which would have the power to expel military members who engage in ``extremist activities or members of an extremist organization,'' codifying diversity, equity, and inclusion training requirements, subsidizing plan B for servicemembers. And now, the Defense Climate Adaptation Plan. You can't even make this stuff up.
China is sending missiles around the globe and we are responding with a Defense Climate Adaptation Plan. In what universe do the leaders of the greatest country in the history of the world do this? This new climate change plan ordered by President Joe Biden, released this last week would affect every level of command.
``Troops will be educated to improve their `climate literacy', according to the report. The topic should be taught to all during professional development training and at advanced courses.
``In order to properly respond, we need to have the knowledge, the tools and the ability to make climate-informed decisions at all echelons.''
We continue to fund in this NDAA, that my colleagues so readily supported, funding for a Department of Defense that engages in critical race theory training for servicemembers.
Last month, the Navy released a recommended reading list--I am sorry, this is last spring--to facilitate the growth and development of sailors. One of the books on the list is ``How to Be an Antiracist'', Kendi's bestseller advocating critical race theory. Separately, the Navy's Second Fleet created a book club for sailors and recommended reading ``White Fragility,'' a book that White people are inherently racist.
If you would like to take a perusal of the Department of Defense website, you can find the Chief Diversity Officer, Senior Advisor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the Director for the Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, the Director for Disability Equal Opportunity Policy and Compliance, the Director of the Department of Defense Diversity and Inclusion, the commandant of the Department of Equity--I don't know even know what the acronym stands for.
In this so-called plan: Climate change is an existential threat to our Nation's security. We must act swiftly and boldly to take on this challenge and prepare for damage that cannot be avoided.
The Department of Defense intends to champion climate considerations inside and beyond the Department. That, at the Department of Defense.
The fact of the matter is, while China, Iran, perhaps the 5,000 terrorists that were released that we had housed in Afghanistan, dozens, hundreds of terrorist groups across the world, they know full well that this country is not remotely serious right now about defending ourselves, defending our allies, standing alongside Israel, standing alongside Taiwan, pushing back on China, ensuring our positioning in the Middle East is strong. Or, for example, securing the southern border of the United States, where we increasingly find individuals from state sponsors of terror from China coming into our southern border. It happens much more regularly than people understand or are comfortable with.
But no response from here. The response to the border, as we know, is to encourage more traffic, allow asylum to be abused, stop building the fence. There are parts of the fence sitting in a field rusting in Texas. We are paying contractors not to build the fence. But paying people not to do things is what my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are particularly good at.
Let's borrow lots of money and print lots of money to pay people not to work.
Let's borrow lots of money, print lots of money to pay people not to build a fence.
Can I get into the not-doing-things business? Maybe my colleagues will be glad to have me not do Congress. Can I get paid to not do Congress, since we are in the not-doing-things business? It is absolutely absurd what we are doing on a daily basis endangering this country.
Secretary Mayorkas, President Biden, utterly refusing to enforce our laws of a border, failing to faithfully execute the laws, refusing to use Title 42, refusing to use the Migrant Protection Protocols.
Dead bodies keep piling up in South Texas. I have talked about it here before, again, to an empty Chamber. Steak dinners are much more important than the migrants who are dying in South Texas.
We talked about that, right? We have a body trailer that a sheriff had to haul in to put the bodies in the body trailer. Does anybody care? Does anybody care about the rape trees? Does anybody care about the stash houses where little girls get raped? Does anybody care about the cartels making tons of money--moving people, by the way, into our country who want to hurt us.
Rather than exporting the rule of law and building a strong relationship with Mexico and building a strong relationship with Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras--the rest of the Western Hemisphere-- to kick China's butt, we are retreating. We are importing lawlessness, importing people who aren't always wanting to do us good. And we are endangering our country in the process.
We are shutting down power plants. China is building power plants. Our President is literally sitting with a bunch of leaders who flew 40 some-odd private jets to hang out and preach about climate change, and they are not going to dent climate change. We got out of the Paris Agreement, and we outperformed the Paris Agreement. How? By burning clean, natural gas, exporting it and working to try to use technology and innovation around the world to have clean, abundant energy that empowers human flourishing.
There are billions around the planet right now that would die to be sitting in a room like this with air conditioning or heating and lighting. They are burning dung, wood, paper--whatever they can get. And we have all these holier-than-thou's running around preaching to people, taking cold water baths, seeking to truly decimate human life, undo human flourishing--all in the name of bowing down to the altar of a secular worship of a planet that they are actually harming with their absurdity. And in the process, endangering us through our national security.
While China builds coal-fired plants, while China builds missiles, we conduct classes on critical race theory and on climate change. That is what we are doing to our country.
As we look ahead next week, this body will not be meeting, and we will be celebrating Veterans Day. And every single one of us will, no doubt, go to an event, try to visit with veterans, thanking them for their service. But I have got to be honest with you. What do I tell those veterans when they come to me and say, Were the last 20 years worth it?
I would tell them it was worth it because they fought, and they stood up to defend this country to keep terrorists from attacking us on this soil. But they are asking a reasonable question when the President of the United States abandons Americans, abandons assets, empowers our enemy, empowers China, leaves our border open, destroys our economy, undermines our ability to produce clean burning energy, leaves a future for our children weaker against the world without the ability to have the kind of flourishing and prosperity that you deserve as Americans.
I don't know what the result is going to be in Virginia tonight, but I know one thing: there are a lot of American people awakening to the absolute disaster that is being inflicted on this country by a radical leftist regime, whether it is in this body, in the Senate, in this administration, or in the Capitol building designed by Jefferson in Richmond, Virginia. Or in the halls of the school board in Loudoun County, sitting on their hands, allowing another little girl to get sexually assaulted because they wouldn't actually address the fact that a girl had been assaulted and they knew it and they did nothing about it.
And then the Democratic candidate in Virginia says parents have no place on the school board. But guess what? The American people think they do, and they are right. The American people know we should have parents on the school boards, parents in the classrooms impacting what their kids are learning. And they don't want to turn it over to leftist radicals who want to remake our country, teach their kids that up is down and down is up. But that is what is happening.
The American people are waking up around this country. They are awakening in Virginia. They are awakening in Texas. They are awakening where they are kicking out people from their school boards. And they are awakening to an administration that wants to destroy our ability to compete and beat China.
We are not going to do that. We are going to beat China. We are going to stand with Israel. We are going to have clean burning energy. We are going to be able to power our homes. We are going to be able to teach our kids what they ought to learn. We are going to stand up if there are men and women. We are going to stand up for the greatness of this country. We are going to provide the opportunity for them, not by lecturing them, not by mandating to them, not by telling them they have got to go get a vaccine, not by shutting down businesses, not by walking away, but by boldly carrying forward the America that we know through the consent of the governed doing that which we can do as Americans, without begging for permission from a government that wants to weaken our country rather than advancing.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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