Republicans to Hold First Primetime Hearing on the Threat from the Communist Chinese Party

FILE - In this Sept. 16, 2018, file photo, American flags are displayed together with Chin
AP Photo/Andy Wong, File
Kristina Wong

The House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party is set to hold its first hearing Tuesday on the threat from the CCP.

The hearing will be primetime, airing at 7 p.m. ET — highlighting the importance of the topic for the Republican-controlled Congress.

Chairman of the committee Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) has sought to keep the committee free of partisanship, h0wever, given the importance of having a unified front against China.

“Our hope is to come away from this with a better sense of why the CCP is a threat and why someone in Northeast Wisconsin or other parts of the country should care about that threat,” Gallagher told the Washington Post in an interview on Sunday.

Likely topics will include China’s surveillance program consisting of balloons such as the 200-plus foot one that floated across the continental United States for more than four days, raising alarm among American citizens and creating a political headache for the Biden administration.

The hearing will likely cover China’s increasing military aggressiveness towards Taiwan. China maintains that Taiwan is not a separate country but part of its territory that it is willing to use military force to forcefully take back.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has a robust unofficial diplomatic relationship with Taiwan and has supplied the country with weapons and other support. A Chinese invasion of Taiwan could pull the U.S. into a military conflict, though Republicans are urging the Biden administration to arm Taiwan to deter that possibility.

U.S. economic vulnerability and the need to somewhat decouple the U.S. economy from China will also likely loom large during the hearing, as well as the possibility of China supplying Russia with lethal aid in its war against Ukraine, which would prolong the war and likely prompt the U.S. to provide more lethal and economic aid to Ukraine.

The first hearing will feature two former Trump administration officials, a Chinese human rights advocate and the president for the Alliance for American Manufacturing.

The two former Trump administration officials are Matthew Pottinger, a former National Security Council official who led on Asia policy, and former National Security Adviser Ret. Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster.

The hearing will also feature Tong Yi, a Chinese human rights advocate, who was imprisoned for two-and-a-half-years for her work with Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng, and Scott Paul, the president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing. Paul was added to the witness list by Democrats, Gallagher told the Post.

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