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Floor Speech
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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, Joseph Stalin was rumored to have once said:
We will hang the capitalists with the rope they sell us.
Unfortunately, the United States has been selling the Chinese Communist Party a lot of rope in recent years. At this very moment, American entities are fueling China's aggression by funneling huge amounts of capital into capabilities that could eventually be used against the United States and our allies. From advanced semiconductors to quantum computing to artificial intelligence it is high time that the United States becomes serious about limiting the flow of U.S. dollars into the arsenal of our biggest strategic adversary.
By some estimates, U.S. investments in Chinese communities totaled more than $2.3 trillion in market value in 2020. That is American investments in Chinese companies--$2.3 trillion in market value at the end of 2020. That includes $21 billion in semiconductors, $54 billion in military companies, and a whopping $221 billion in artificial intelligence. According to a report from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, ``The United States is the most important foreign source of investment to semiconductors, quantum computing, and AI in China.''
Because of China's strategy of military-civil fusion, these investments are not simply benefiting China's economy; they are directly bolstering China's military. China is the greatest national security threat of our time. I think we all understand that, and it is incomprehensible to me that American investors are continuing to bankroll its rise, and we are essentially blind to what that scale and what the focus of those investments really are.
The Chinese Communist Party has become increasingly aggressive in its efforts to gain power and influence, embracing illicit tactics like intellectual property theft, forced technology transfer, and predatory lending. According to findings of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, China subsidizes the sale of fentanyl and illicit narcotics abroad and has fueled addiction and death in the United States. The Drug Enforcement Administration reports that fentanyl is the leading cause of death among Americans between the ages of 18 and 45. We know where the precursors are coming from. We know where they go--to Mexico--and then they are combined and then produced to look like normal pharmaceutical drugs, much to the chagrin and misery and death of so many of our young people. And then, 2 years ago, the United States intercepted a surveillance balloon from China that crossed across our country.
Meanwhile the Chinese Communist Party continues to assert excessive and illegal maritime boundary claims in the South China Sea, at times using force against our treaty ally, the Philippines, when they have attempted to resupply their ship near the Second Thomas Shoal. President Xi has ordered the Chinese military to be ready and capable of taking Taiwan by force in 2027--just 2 years from now.
So it should go without saying that the United States should exercise caution before continuing to sell the Chinese Communist Party rope in the form of sensitive technology, like advanced semiconductors and artificial intelligence.
I have been working with my colleagues here to address legislation that would provide some transparency for this outbound investment from the United States to the PRC. Last year, the Senate made good progress on this issue by including a provision to address outbound investment transparency in the Senate-passed National Defense Authorization Act. The Senate voted 91 to 6 to include my amendment in the NDAA last year, showing an overwhelming bipartisan consensus on the need to address this issue. We all know how hard it is to find consensus around here. A 60-vote threshold can be hard to come by on many important issues, but upward of 90 votes should send a clear message that this issue is one that we deem of utmost importance on a bipartisan basis. We all are acutely aware of our competition with China and our need to counter some of China's aggression, and including prohibitions on certain outbound investments is a critical step to that end.
I must say we have had some great partners in the House. I want to thank, in particular, John Moolenaar, chair of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party; Congressman Michael McCaul, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House; and Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson, who have all contributed to our efforts to advance this issue, but this isn't where the story ends.
The Senate has--or had--another opportunity to include these provisions in the Defense Authorization Act this year, but House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries chose to block these provisions. One person is standing in the way. It is simply unconscionable that anyone who claims to care about the China threat would be opposed to outbound investment transparency, and it is unacceptable to play political games with such an essential national security provision.
I understand, over the last day, Leader Jeffries has listened to the voice of reason and come back to the negotiating table. And I am hopeful that these conversations will continue to be productive and yield a positive outcome. The national security of our country depends on it, and we must not squander this opportunity to confront the Chinese Communist Party. Time is running out.
We all know that we are living in the most dangerous time since World War II. Our adversaries are not shy about the fact that they are working together. Earlier this year, China and Russia pledged to deepen their trust and cooperation, while they have continued to conduct joint military exercises. North Korea has sent 10,000 troops to Russia, and some intelligence estimates suggest they may be willing to provide up to 100,000 soldiers in the coming months, from North Korea to Russia, to fight in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Iran and its proxies have been attacking U.S. shipments in the Red Sea and have launched a terrorist attack against our greatest strategic ally in the Middle East, which is Israel. It is no secret--it is well-known--that China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea are working in concert to undermine American interests and to threaten the stability of the global world order. So we should not add our name to the list by helping them with the gift of unrestrained, nontransparent American investment.
I would urge all of our colleagues to not let politics stand in the way of our national security. We cannot stand by and continue selling the communists in China the rope they will use to hang the United States of America.
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