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

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, China says it reserves the right to retaliate against America for the temerity of shooting down their spy balloon over our territory. This arrogance should not surprise us. It is the fruit of decades of China successfully pushing us around and getting away with murder. The balloon is just the latest, and I think the smallest, invasion of our sovereignty.

China denies access to American companies to its market, thus creating the most lopsided trading relationship in the history of trading relationships, with all the macroeconomic effects that has.

But it also has an effect on our sovereignty, because it then allows access to their markets to selected American companies, handing out that access like dog training treats. And lo and behold, our corporations, they roll over, they sit down, they play dead. Morgan Stanley has to tell its American customers to invest--advises them to invest 15 percent of their money in China; and if it fails to do so, Morgan Stanley won't be able to do business in China.

God forbid anybody from the NBA mentions Hong Kong or the Uyghurs. They are bounced out of the league.

And Hollywood is told they can only get 40 movies into China every year, which means if they make a movie about Tibet, it will not be shown in China. Hell, if they make a movie about Tibet, none of their movies will ever be shown in China. As a result, we are not going to see a movie about Tibet or the Uyghurs. China controls what we see on our screens.

And then a little problem with COVID, where China's obfuscation and lack of cooperation led to hundreds of thousands of deaths around the world.

But most significantly are the millions of jobs that we have lost as we have seen our industry hollowed out. The result is a decline in real wages over the last 30 years of Americans without college degrees and the fentanyl crisis as well.

All of these offenses deserve a major response, and we cannot limit that response to just this balloon. Like a balloon, we cannot allow this to all blow over.

I have five modest proposals.

First, we should sell identified weapon systems to Taiwan, including the helicopters.

Second, we should provide that China automatically loses its most- favored-nation status if they invade or blockade Taiwan.

Third, all major American corporations should report to their shareholders how they would be affected by a rupture in the U.S.-China trade relationship, because that is a genuine risk factor. It might happen. But that will encourage the companies to disengage from China and to build resiliency to compete for capital by showing shareholders that they are ready and that they have disengaged. And if our companies are resilient, our economy is resilient.

Fourth, we need a fund to compensate American companies that choose not to bow down to China and, therefore, suffer losses. This needs to be funded from a tariff on Chinese goods.

And, fifth, we need tough responses to China in tariffs if they retaliate for any of the four things I just identified.

We have a lot to do. This balloon has woken up the American people, and it should wake us up to the far greater things that China has done.

In the meantime, let's pass this resolution.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source