Strategic Homeland Intelligence and Enforcement Legislation to Defend Against the Ccp Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. SUOZZI. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Green and Congresswoman Clarke, my good friend, for their leadership.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of a bill I authored with Congressman Strong, the bipartisan SHIELD Against the CCP Act.

The Chinese Communist Party is intent on promoting authoritarianism by weakening America from within. They seek to take our greatest strengths: pluralism, diversity, free speech, capitalism, and representative government, and use them against us.

China uses our freedoms, our social media, and our open society to sow chaos and division in our country. They know we cannot solve difficult problems in an environment of fear and anger, so they encourage fear and anger. They promote the most extreme sides of our thorniest debates. Whether it is Black lives matter versus blue lives matter, or transgender versus evangelicals, or Israel versus Gaza, the Chinese Communist Party promotes the most extreme positions on both sides of the debate, not with an objective of winning a debate but of fomenting dissent in America.

Add to this theft of our intellectual property, threats to our critical infrastructure, and trying to intimidate U.S. citizens through transnational repression. We must act.

The fact that today we are promoting bipartisan legislation is our greatest possible response. Democrats and Republicans can work together to combat this threat.

Our bipartisan bill counters the Chinese Communist Party with strength by, one, building the capacity of the Department of Homeland Security to fight predatory economic and trade practices; two, preventing identity theft; three, strengthening our border security; four, providing the Department of Homeland Security with adequate resources to protect our critical infrastructure; five, improving cybersecurity; and, six, fighting transnational repression and criminal organizations.

The FBI Director has stated that the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party, poses a broad and unrelenting threat. The Chinese Communist Party is also engaged in a brutal campaign of transnational repression, targeting democracy advocates, Tibetans, Hong Kongers, Uyghurs, and other ethnic minority groups.

The Chinese Communist Party actually targets Americans, including my constituents. Just before Thanksgiving, after years of fighting for his release, I received the incredible news that my constituent, Kai Li, was finally released to the U.S. after more than a decade of wrongful imprisonment in China. If we are to honor the years Mr. Li spent Chinese detention, then we must remain clear-eyed about the CCP threat and redouble our efforts to counter it.

Among their provocative tactics is transnational repression, which can be illustrated through the torment of Dr. Gulshan Abbas and her family. In 2018, Dr. Abbas was taken to a Uyghur forced labor camp.

What was her crime, Mr. Speaker?

Her sister, Rushan Abbas, an American, spoke out against the Uyghur genocide during a panel discussion here in America, then her sister was put in prison in China.

Think about it, Mr. Speaker. The CCP is not only carrying out mass detention, torture, forced sterilization, and forced labor against religious minorities within China, but also imprisoning family members of American citizens to suppress free expression here in America.

Let me be clear: the United States cannot waver in the face of this unrelenting strategic adversary. Today, we must demonstrate our resolve by supporting the SHIELD Against CCP Act which will help ensure that our government has a strong and unified response to the Chinese Communist Party's aggression.

Working with Congressman Strong demonstrates that when we work together, we will succeed.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to support this legislation.

Ms. CLARKE of New York. Mr. Speaker, I have no more speakers, and I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Representatives Strong and Suozzi for leading on this bill, I urge all Members to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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