Condemning the Chinese Communist Party's Use of A High-Altitude Surveillance Balloon Over United States Territory As A Brazen Violation of United States Sovereignty
Floor Speech
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Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 104) condemning the Chinese Communist Party's use of a high-altitude surveillance balloon over United States territory as a brazen violation of United States sovereignty.
The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
The text of the resolution is as follows: H. Res. 104
Whereas, on February 2, 2023, the Department of Defense publicly announced it was tracking over United States territory a high-altitude surveillance balloon belonging to the People's Republic of China (PRC);
Whereas the Department of Defense has since acknowledged that North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) first began tracking the surveillance balloon on January 28, 2023, prior to its entry into United States airspace;
Whereas the Secretary of Defense has stated that the balloon ``was being used by the PRC in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States'';
Whereas the surveillance balloon traveled near sensitive United States national security facilities, including Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana;
Whereas, on February 4, 2023, a United States Air Force aircraft shot down the surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina;
Whereas the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) intelligence collection directed against the United States poses a threat to United States interests and security;
Whereas, while the PRC has a long history of intelligence collection operations against United States national security entities, reports of its espionage have risen significantly in recent years;
Whereas the CCP attempted to spread false claims about the nature and purpose of the surveillance balloon, falsely claiming it to be a weather balloon that veered off-course due to ``force majeure'' events;
Whereas, on February 3, 2023, the Secretary of State postponed his planned trip to the PRC and referred to the balloon incident as an ``irresponsible act and a clear violation of U.S. sovereignty and international law that undermined the purpose of the trip'';
Whereas Article I of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, also known as the Chicago Convention, states that ``every State has complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its territory'';
Whereas although PRC surveillance balloons have previously violated United States airspace, this incident differs from those prior violations due to the length of time the balloon spent over United States territory; and
Whereas it is in the United States national security interest to deter foreign adversaries from engaging in intelligence collection and other malign activities within United States territory and airspace: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) condemns the PRC's brazen violation of United States sovereignty;
(2) denounces the CCP's efforts to deceive the international community through false claims about its intelligence collection campaigns in violation of United States sovereignty;
(3) determines that it should be the policy of the United States to promptly and decisively act to prevent foreign aerial surveillance platforms, including those directed by or connected to the CCP, from violating United States sovereignty; and
(4) calls on the Biden administration to continue to keep Congress apprised by providing comprehensive briefings on this incident that include--
(A) a complete account of all known infiltrations of the national airspace by the PRC over the past several years, regardless of platform;
(B) a complete account of similar past incidents of the PRC's use of surveillance balloons around the world;
(C) a complete timeline of events for the most recent infiltration from first detection to the eventual shootdown of the balloon;
(D) an assessment of what surveillance data the PRC was potentially able to collect or transmit, via the balloon while it was over United States territory;
(E) a detailed account of what measures were taken to mitigate the intelligence collection threat posed by the balloon, the costs of those measures, and the impact on the regular operations of the affected installations, platforms, and personnel;
(F) a description of what options were identified to mitigate the threat, and a description and timing of the recommendation the U.S. military made to the President regarding those response options;
(G) a detailed account of diplomatic communications between the United States and the PRC regarding this incident, including any demarches by Department of State personnel and subsequent responses by the PRC; and
(H) a detailed description of plans, capabilities, and methods to deter and defeat intelligence collection activities conducted by the PRC or other foreign adversaries in the national airspace system and any additional authorities needed from Congress to ensure detection and defeat of these activities in the future.
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Mr. McCAUL. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, this past week the Nation watched in shock as a Chinese surveillance balloon traversed much of the United States, including sensitive American military sites like Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. That base is one of the three places where our minuteman ICBM nuclear missiles are stored.
Americans were rightfully deeply disturbed by this brazen violation of sovereignty by the Chinese Communist Party. This act of aggression was done on the eve of a scheduled meeting between Chairman Xi and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. That meeting was ultimately canceled.
The balloon, I believe, was a test, a test of this administration to see how it would respond. I believe the President should have shot it down before it entered American airspace rather than allow it to cross over the Continental United States airspace.
But make no mistake, this was another intentionally provocative act by the CCP. As I have said often, weakness invites aggression. This act will only further embolden and empower our enemies; it will embolden and empower Chairman Xi.
Mr. Speaker, I have never seen a foreign nation adversary fly a reconnaissance aircraft that you could see from the ground with your own eyes. The CCP threat is now within sight for Americans across the heartland, a vision and memory that they will not forget.
This is further proof that the CCP does not care about having a constructive relationship with the United States. It is publicly challenging U.S. interests, threatening Taiwan, supporting Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine, and now violating U.S. sovereignty.
If there is any question whether the administration should request funds supporting Taiwan's foreign military financing grants, this incident alone should make it clear that the time is now to harden ourselves and our partners against the Chinese military aggression.
An event like this, Mr. Speaker, must not happen again, and it cannot go unanswered. They only understand one thing and that is force, and that is projecting power; and we need to project power and force and strength against the Chinese Communist Party.
They must understand that we do desire peace, but infringing upon our sovereignty leads us down a dangerous path. Our adversaries must believe that any future incursion into American airspace by a spy balloon or any other vehicle will be met with decisive force, and that is why the House should pass this resolution.
The resolution, under section 4, does call for the Biden administration to continue to keep Congress apprised by providing comprehensive briefings on this incident that include--and there are many of these, but I want to go to the end,--most importantly, a detail description of plans, capabilities, and methods to deter and defeat intelligence collection activities conducted by the PRC or other foreign adversaries in the national airspace system and any additional authorities needed from Congress to ensure detection and defeat these activities in the future.
I hope this administration will comply with this resolution. This resolution, I believe, sends a clear, bipartisan signal to the CCP and our adversaries around the world that this action will not be tolerated; to tell the world, with a united voice, that our national security is not a partisan issue.
We stand together today with one voice, as Americans, Americans against this act of aggression by the Chinese Communist Party.
Mr. Speaker, I urge unanimous support of this resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Fry), who personally eyewitnessed the spy balloon in the Atlantic Ocean as it was shot down on the beaches right off of his district, off the coast of his district in South Carolina.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend for offering this very important and very timely resolution. It asks many of the tough questions that have to be asked, and we need answers.
Mr. Speaker, journalist Paul Bedard wrote an incisive article on February 3 entitled: ``Dry run: Balloons called top `delivery platform' for nuclear EMP attack.'' It points out that, obviously, the grid would be fried; we would be unable to do just about anything. Here is a balloon going over our military installations, including our ICBM base, with the capability to launch an EMP attack. Did we know it? Did it have such a payload? We have no idea.
Let me also say surveillance was at a minimum what was happening. It should have been shot down much sooner over the Aleutian Islands in a way that would have just stopped this unbelievable breach of U.S. sovereignty.
He quotes in this article a man by the name of David Stuckenberg, who is an EMP expert, and he says: ``A high altitude balloon could be designed, created, and launched in a matter of months.'' And that is what they did. ``There is nothing to prevent several hundred pounds of weapons material from being delivered'' from that altitude. He talks about the flyover as being a dry run.
They are testing us, and we did not rise to that challenge.
Let me say to my friends and colleagues: The militaristic aspirations of the PRC and Xi Jinping are global. He watches his enemies, obviously, in the region, but he looks at the entire world, and he has a multi-year plan for conquest.
Finally, I have chaired 76 congressional hearings on human rights abuses in China. I am barred from going there by the CCP.
Xi Jinping and the CCP systematically murder, jail, torture, persecute, and commit genocide against their own citizens. As we all know, it does pose an existential threat to its neighbors in the region and to the United States.
We need to up our game and mitigate the threat to our own people. Americans deserve better, and this resolution is asking the tough questions so that happens.
Mr. KEAN of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res. 104, which rightfully condemns this violation of the United States' sovereignty by the Chinese Communist Party.
Last week, we saw the Chinese Communist Party breach U.S. airspace with the intention of openly surveilling sensitive U.S. national security facilities, including locations housing nuclear missiles. This is unacceptable and demonstrates again that the CCP is willing to challenge the United States and to flaunt its intelligence-gathering operations in our country.
The Biden administration owes the American people an explanation as to why earlier action was not taken against this threat. Why is any foreign government allowed to act in this fashion without an immediate response from the U.S.?
We must project strength, not weakness, if this Nation wants to be taken seriously on the world stage.
I thank the men and women of our Armed Forces who carried out this mission to remove this surveillance from our skies. I will continue working with my colleagues on the Foreign Affairs Committee to support our partners in the Indo-Pacific to address this threat posed by the CCP and to provide appropriate oversight over this administration.
Mr. Speaker, let me just say that lies, deceit, espionage, spying, this is nothing new.
Mr. Speaker, I remember, in 1997, I was assigned to a case at the Department of Justice to prosecute a man named Johnny Chung. He was taking money from Chinese intelligence officials, from China Aerospace, to put into the Clinton campaign to influence the election because China wanted to influence the election back then. They wanted satellites. They wanted aerospace technology. That is why they were doing it then.
Guess what? My FBI agent got indicted for espionage for sleeping with a Chinese spy--imagine that--a Chinese spy who for 20 years was cultivated as an FBI asset. Her name was Katrina Leung. I will never forget it because all the information I gave my agent went straight back to the mother ship in Beijing. A Chinese spy, 20 years cultivated, became a double agent reporting back to Beijing, and we can't release those documents from 20 years ago, 30 years ago.
But this--this one--takes the cake: a balloon this brazen that is only 60,000 feet above the ground and that can be seen with the naked eye surveilling the United States of America.
We talked at our organizational meeting last night about how this committee is bipartisan. We are bipartisan. We are bipartisan on this issue.
Mr. Speaker, I will tell you this: If there is anything this Congress should get done--I challenge the other side of the aisle--let's stand together against this common enemy that we have.
Our enemy is not each other. Our enemies are foreign enemy nations like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea--China being the largest foreign state adversary and the biggest threat long term to the national security interests of the United States.
Let's do it with one voice. Let's put our partisan politics aside and do what is right for America.
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Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
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