Rep. Michelle Steel of Seal Beach emphasized standing up to the Chinese Communist Party as her top priority during the first hearing of a new House committee created to focus on threats China could pose to the United States.
The bipartisan panel, named the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, is helmed by Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin. Made up of 13 Republicans and 11 Democrats, the panel will investigate and submit policy recommendations on matters of U.S.-China relations, including Chinese spy tactics, intellectual property theft, human rights violations and threats against Taiwan.
“More than one third of my constituents are Asian Americans. Many of them are first generation immigrants who, like my own parents, fled communism to find freedom in this country,” Steel, who was appointed to the panel in late January by Speaker Kevin McCarthy, said during the hearing. “For them and for me, the threat from the Chinese Communist Party is personal. It is the greatest single threat facing the American people and democracy around the world.”
The committee’s first meeting, which took place in prime time on Tuesday, Feb. 28, covered a lot of ground, from the treatment of the Uyghur people in China to TikTok data breaches.
While some critics have expressed concern the hearings could escalate U.S.-Chinese tensions, the panel’s chairman framed the competition between the two nations as “an existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st century.”
Tensions between the U.S. and China have been rising for years, with both countries enacting retaliatory tariffs on an array of imports during former President Donald Trump’s time in office. China’s opaque response to the COVID-19 pandemic, its aggression toward Taiwan and the recent flight of a possible spy balloon over the U.S. have fueled lawmakers’ desire to counter the Chinese government. The new Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party is expected to be at the center of many of their efforts over the next two years.
The panel heard Tuesday from four witnesses: human rights activist Tong Yi, Alliance for American Manufacturing President Scott Paul, former national security advisor H.R. McMaster and former deputy national security advisor Matt Pottinger, both who worked in Trump’s administration.
To Yi, Steel asked, “When you see elected officials across western countries and global companies turn a blind eye to the CCP, what do elected leaders need to do to protect minority groups and vulnerable populations in China?”
Yi responded that the U.S. government could help by funding programs that conduct research on how to bring down the Chinese firewall, which she said the government uses to censor the Internet.
“If the Chinese people have access to the Internet, the free flow of information, then they will know the truth,” she said. “And the truth is powerful on its own.”
Ever since her election to Congress, Steel has been involved in a number of panels and has introduced legislation that focus on U.S.-China relations. She was recently reappointed to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and introduced a bill with House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik that aims to “protect college campuses from CCP influence.”
While the formation of the select committee was bipartisan, with 146 Democrats reaching across the aisle to vote in favor of the resolution to put together the panel, some Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Mark Takano, D-Riverside, opposed the resolution, voicing skepticism of the “true intentions behind the formation of this committee.”
“I hope my Republican colleagues can approach this topic from a position of strength, not weakness, xenophobia or fear,” he said in January on the House floor.
In his opening remarks, Democratic ranking member Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi emphasized that the panel “must practice bipartisanship” and “avoid anti-Chinese or Asian stereotyping at all costs.”
“Comments that question the loyalty of Asian American members of Congress are completely unacceptable and must be rejected,” he added.
During McMaster’s introductory comment, two Code Pink anti-war protestors interrupted the hearing, holding signs that read “China is not our enemy” and “Stop Asian Hate.”
Gallagher said he is committed to ensuring the focus is on the Chinese Communist Party, not on the people of China. He is looking for the committee to shepherd several bills over the finish line during the next two years and issue its set of recommendations on long-term policies.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: Orange County Register
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