Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party

Floor Speech

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Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, as the designee of the majority leader, pursuant to House Resolution 5, I call up H. Res. 11, and ask for its immediate consideration.

The Clerk read the title of the resolution.

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Mr. COLE. Res. 11.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 11, a resolution Establishing the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. This select committee will be charged with addressing the urgent threat to the United States and our allies posed by the Chinese Communist Party.

Mr. Speaker, the ongoing threat posed by Communist China and the fact that the CCP cannot be trusted as a global party has been apparent to the American people for some time.

In 2019, at the behest of then-Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, House Republicans created the China Task Force to review Communist China's actions and to make policy recommendations to protect U.S. interests against the Chinese Communist Party. Republicans sought to make this task force bipartisan and extended an open invitation to Democrats to join us. Unfortunately, House Democrats chose not to participate at that time. I hope they do at this time.

The China Task Force ultimately produced a report with more than 400 policy recommendations, many of them bipartisan. Today, we are taking the next logical step with the creation of a select committee empowered to investigate and respond to the counterintelligence and economic espionage threat that threatens our very way of life. Make no mistake, Mr. Speaker, the Chinese Communist Party has demonstrated time and time again that it is more interested in being America's foe than America's friend.

The events of the past 3 years have brought into stark focus how Communist China's actions affect the United States and the rest of the world. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began inside China's borders, the world has experienced constant disruptions and chaos. Indeed, Communist China's approach to the COVID-19 pandemic is emblematic of its approach to many other things: attempting to cover up the pandemic's existence, resisting all efforts to investigate its origins, committing horrific human rights abuses, and refusing to work productively with the global community to combat the pandemic.

It has also become apparent that far too many economically critical supply chains are tied to China, which threatens our economic and national security. We are dangerously dependent on China for basic building blocks of our economy. The result is shortages of critical products, like semiconductors and rare earth minerals, both of which are largely produced in China today, along with the shortages of pharmaceuticals and personal protective equipment, which threatens our ability to battle future pandemics. Our national and economic security requires us to secure our vulnerable supply chains and, indeed, to bring them back home to America.

Communist China has also undertaken aggressive actions designed to expand their influence both in the United States and abroad. Communist China is a prolific thief of American intellectual property, violating countless patents, and failing to respect international and domestic intellectual property laws.

They have undertaken a systematic effort to infiltrate American colleges and universities through their support of the so-called Confucius Institutes and other organizations designed to spread Chinese propaganda.

Chinese spy networks operate both on American soil and in cyberspace. And popular Chinese-owned apps like TikTok spread more propaganda and take massive amounts of Americans' personal data back to the Chinese Government.

In addition, the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative has spread the tentacles of the so-called People's Liberation Army throughout the world, particularly the developing world, and has ensnared dozens of developing countries in debt-trap diplomacy.

Communist China continues to aggressively push into the South China Sea and militarize small islands, threatening freedom of navigation in this strategically important region. They relentlessly and aggressively provoke Taiwan, an island that demonstrates to the world what a free, democratic, and capitalist China could look like.

Mr. Speaker, the bottom line is Communist China is a serious, generational threat that we must address before it is too late. China exhibits expanding economic and military power coupled with the uncompromising rejection of our values and those of our allies.

That is why the Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party is so critical. It will be charged with reviewing our economic dependence on China and restoring safe and secure supply chains, on reviewing China's actions toward the United States and our allies, on restoring American domestic institutions to protect them against Chinese infiltration and propaganda, and so much more.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members on both sides of the aisle to join me in support of this resolution so we can stand united against Communist China.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, for over three decades post- Tiananmen Square massacre, Congress was deeply divided; not between Republican and Democrat, but among the majority here and in the Senate who favored unfettered engagement and trade without serious human rights conditionality.

Indeed, President Clinton delinked human rights in trade on May 26, 1994. I went up there and gave a press conference. I was joined by a few others saying how serious that was to give up on human rights and allow profits to trump human rights.

We have seen the brutal nature of the Communist regime, especially under Xi Jinping, and the Chinese Communist Party's ultimate desire to seek hegemony.

Over the years, I have chaired 76 congressional hearings on China and authored several pieces of legislation, including the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, and was the Republican sponsor of Jim McGovern's Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. We now have to make sure those laws are being faithfully implemented.

Mr. Speaker, 20 years ago when China became a member of the WTO, most Members of Congress, and certainly in the business and community on foreign policy establishment, bought into what James Mann rightfully called ``the China fantasy.''

In other words, if you just trade more with a dictatorship, somehow they will matriculate into a democracy.

That fantasy has been shown to be demonstrably naive, at best. The CCP has become more powerful because of the trade and dual use items that have accrued over there that are now being used by their military and by their police.

I would note, parenthetically, I chaired two hearings on why China should not be invited into the WTO and no one--no one--listened.

The record is clear, Mr. Speaker. As predicted, we have become more like them. Thankfully, that is changing, but many in our corporate establishment, as we saw with the Olympics, were standing right by Beijing and the CCP and Xi Jinping and wouldn't utter a word, including Coca-Cola and others, about the terrible killing of the Uyghurs and the use of forced labor camps.

We have stood by as the Chinese embassy and the Ministry of State Security have harassed people of Chinese heritage and nationality living lawfully in the United States.

We have not done all that we can do for the people of Hong Kong, Tibet, and the Uyghur people in the autonomous region.

But today, thankfully, we are turning a page, and I applaud our Speaker for pushing hard for this select committee. Hopefully, it will make a difference.

I begin by thanking my friend for the debate and for his tremendous work in holding China accountable in the human rights area.

I am certainly confident the Speaker will do as he said, and we will have a committee both sides can be proud of.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this resolution creating a Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.

It is beyond dispute that Communist China poses an urgent generational threat to the United States' interests and values. America has become far too economically dependent on China in recent decades, and as a result, our supply chains have become dangerously fragile. We must urgently take steps to secure our supply chains and bring them home.

The Chinese Communist Party continues to push the envelope, both in the United States and abroad. They steal American intellectual property. They build spy networks and propaganda machines on American soil. They threaten our allies in Asia and the South China Sea. They have spread their influence throughout the developing world, seeking to ensnare vulnerable developing countries in debt-trap diplomacy.

Mr. Speaker, the time has come for the House of Representatives to take a comprehensive look at Communist China. We must build on the excellent work done by the China Task Force in 2019 and 2020. We must investigate China's actions and respond appropriately to ensure America confronts this very grave threat.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to vote ``yes'' on this resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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