China is our enemy. They are not our “competitors.” They are not our “partners.” China is a 100%, full-blown, dyed-in-the-wool enemy of America and everything decent and good that we stand for.
And American presidents and congresses who have spent the last two decades pretending otherwise need to be shamed in the public square. Perhaps spending 48 hours in the stocks might convince them of the error of their ways?
For far too long, China’s aggressive posture, its brazen theft of American technology and intellectual property, its flouting of international trade rules, and finally, its deliberate obfuscation and coverup of what went on in the Wuhan Virology Lab in 2019 that led to a pandemic that we’re still trying to recover from, has gone unchallenged by the United States.
Related: COVID-19 Could Be Tied to China’s Bioweapons Program: GOP Report
It’s time that changes. And one of the first acts of the newly-minted Republican House — after forming a committee to investigate the “weaponization” of government — was to create a bipartisan committee that will investigate China and its “economic, technological, and security progress and its competition with the United States,” according to the bill authorizing the committee.
For once, both sides agree on something so strongly that it overcomes the rabid partisanship that darkens every other issue in the House.
McCarthy said on the floor he wished the panel to be comprised of serious legislators and gave Democrats his word it would not devolve into a circus. “You have my word and my commitment. This is not a partisan committee. This will be a bipartisan committee. That is my hope, my desire, my wish that we speak with one voice,” the California Republican said, adding he hopes it carries on regardless of which party is in the majority.
Many Democrats voiced support for the panel, even as they expressed fears it could be a haven for anti-Asian rhetoric or conspiracy theories. “While I do have concerns here, after reading the resolution itself, I will be voting yes,” House Rules ranking member Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said. “The Democratic Party has led the way in implementing efforts to monitor China’s compliance with international human rights and rule of law standards. And we will continue to do so here.”
The rabid left, led by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chairwoman of the powerful Progressive Caucus, believes that Republicans will say mean things about China, which of course, can easily be twisted into Republicans saying mean things about all Asians.
“Unfortunately, we are concerned about the direction of this committee given past statements and actions by Republicans. In the hands of President Trump and Congressional Republicans, reckless and prejudiced rhetoric and policy contributed to a rise in anti-Asian sentiment across the country and a 339 percent increase in anti-Asian hate crimes in 2021. One in six Asian American adults reported experiencing a hate crime or hate incident that same year,” Jayapal said in a statement.
“This also should not be a committee about winning a ‘new Cold War’ as the Chair-Designate of the Committee has previously stated. America can and must work towards our economic and strategic competitiveness goals without ‘a new Cold War’ and without the repression, discrimination, hate, fear, degeneration of our political institutions, and violations of civil rights that such a ‘Cold War’ may entail.
The Chinese Communists probably read that last paragraph and laughed. “Keep trying to be our friends, stupid Americans. Maybe after we take Taiwan, you might realize that we’ve been at war with you all along.”
Where the committee will do the most good is in publicizing what our intelligence agencies have been telling us for years about China’s state-sponsored hacking operations as well as the billions of dollars lost every year in the theft of intellectual property rights.
Wisconsin Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher will chair the committee.
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