“Not A Tennis Match”: SOS By US House Panel Probing China Ruling Party

Washington:

Top US lawmakers have described China as an “existential” threat to the US during the first ever hearing on China by the Republican-majority House of Representatives.

He also called for making all efforts within the country and in coordination with its allies to successfully address the challenge posed by the Communist Party-led China.

The US has routinely and historically described Chinese behavior as aggressive.

The name of the newly formed committee is the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“This is not a polite tennis match. What life will look like in the 21st century is an existential struggle — and most Fundamental liberties are at stake.” in his inaugural address on Tuesday.

“We must act with a sense of urgency. Our policy over the next ten years will set the stage for the next hundred,” said Gallagher, a former Marine and intelligence officer. The ranking member, Congressman Raja Krishnamurthy, an Indian American, joined him in underscoring the threat posed by China.

Over the last three decades, both Democrats and Republicans underestimated the CCP and assumed that trade and investment would inevitably lead to democracy and greater security in the Indo-Pacific region, including the PRC. Instead, the opposite happened, he said.

“As China’s economy has grown more than tenfold since gaining access to the US and world markets, the CCP has other things to do: consolidate its authoritarian control at home, including engaging in genocide of the Uighur people. The CCP has funded massive military buildup, threatened its neighbors including Taiwan, and pursued economic and trade policies that undermine the US economy as a whole,” he said.

Krishnamurthy said the US should continue to invest in high technology sectors of the future and promote American manufacturing. It should stop the aggression by the CCP.

“We don’t want a war with the PRC, not a cold war, not a hot war, we don’t want” a clash of civilizations. But, we want a lasting peace. And so we have to stop the aggression.

The United States must strengthen our global partnerships and alliances not only to counter the CCP’s security challenges, but also to address its anti-competitive economic policies, he said.

The rise of the malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party has harmed Americans. Its state-sponsored espionage efforts have stolen American intellectual property and its unfair trade tactics have driven American industries out of business, Congresswoman Claudia Tenney said.

Additionally, China is now leveraging its economic influence to spread its dangerous, anti-liberty techno-authoritarian model abroad.

Congressman Ro Khanna began his remarks at the first China Select Committee hearing with a word about the protesters.

“It takes guts to come into the halls of power with a dissenting point of view. When we listen to dissent, we show exactly how America differs from the Chinese Communist Party. The hearing was briefly disrupted by protesters.

Matthew Pottinger, former US deputy national security adviser, and HR McMaster, former US national security adviser, testified before the committee, along with Tong Yi, Chinese human rights advocate and Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing.

During the past several years, US-China relations have reached their lowest level in decades.

Relations between the two countries deteriorated in 2019 following the outbreak of the coronavirus, which originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and spread to other parts of the world.

Most recently, the US shot down a suspected spy balloon over its airspace – which China said was one of its weather balloons that had gone astray. Since then, relations between the two countries have deteriorated. In recent days, the US has also shot down several other unidentified objects.

Former President Donald Trump launched a trade war with China in 2018, demanding that Beijing reduce a huge trade deficit of more than USD 539 billion.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)