Republican Congressman: How should the US counter China?

Under President Donald Trump, an America First policy maintained peace through force.

Far from putting America First, the Biden administration has said its goal is to “compete” with China, as if security were just a game. White House officials have not said it is in the national interest to counter the Chinese Communist Party, but have instead made climate change a central part of the national security strategy.

Under Xi Jinping’s leadership, Beijing has continued its genocide against Uighur Muslims, committed crimes against humanity against Tibetan Buddhists, and transformed Hong Kong from a bastion of freedom into a police state. China also appears to be preparing to invade Taiwan in the near future, with plans to send more than 1,700 aircraft into Taiwan’s air defense zone in 2023 alone.

This is not just an Asian issue. The Chinese Communist Party has already encroached on American soil. President Joe Biden may not be taking the Chinese Communist Party threat seriously, but I do.

I recently introduced the Countering the Chinese Communist Party Act, a far-reaching bill designed to counter the Chinese Communist Party’s influence in all aspects of American life, strengthen our military’s readiness to meet the Chinese Communist Party’s threat head-on, and protect the American people from the deadly fentanyl crisis that is fueled by the Chinese Communist Party and supported by Mexican drug cartels.

The first step is to eradicate the Chinese Communist Party’s malign influence in our education system, politics, and even Hollywood.

Recent reports say China is pumping about $18 million into the American primary and secondary education system to set up pro-Beijing Confucius Institutes in universities across the country. The funding comes with strings attached: schools cannot teach anything that portrays China in a negative light.

“Can you imagine American film studios in the 1960s and 70s censoring films at the behest of the Soviet Union? That’s exactly what’s happening in Hollywood studios today. And in our own nation’s capital, the Chinese Communist Party is funding think tanks that are sending out experts to testify before congressional committee hearings and be quoted in the press.”

All of these efforts in the United States are led by the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department, created by Mao Zedong, who called it the “magic weapon” that would make communism triumph over democracy.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has banned visas for known United Front agents, but there is more to be done. My bill would counter the Chinese Communist Party’s influence tactics, impose sanctions on the United Front, and ban United Front funds from flowing into the United States. It would also require think tanks and nonprofits to disclose funding to the Chinese Communist Party and ban paid lobbying of the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliates.

Xi Jinping is exploiting the private sector freedoms he refuses to give his own people, especially China’s military-civil integration, which ensures that all Chinese companies contribute to the development of the country’s military.

In recent years, the United States has sent nearly $1 trillion to its largest economic competitor, China, and if that wasn’t worrying enough, U.S. venture capital firms are also investing billions in Chinese companies that directly fund the Chinese government and military.

In essence, we are allowing Wall Street to fund our own destruction.

It will be impossible to completely decouple the U.S. economy from the Chinese economy without major global repercussions. But that should not prevent the U.S. from rebuilding its economic relationship with China. My bill would impose sanctions on Chinese companies involved in the Chinese Communist Party’s military-civilian integration and prohibit Americans from doing business with such companies. It would also require foreign investment reviews of certain sectors to cut off U.S. capital that fuels China’s military growth.

Unfortunately, China can harm American civilians without resorting to military force. Thanks to Biden’s border crisis, over 25 tons of fentanyl are coming in through our southern border, more than enough to kill every American.

Much of the fentanyl in our country comes from China, where Mexican drug cartels process Chinese raw chemicals to produce synthetic opioids and smuggle them across the border.

China is exporting weapons of mass destruction to our country that kill thousands of Americans every year.

While closing the border would go a long way to preventing fentanyl deaths, our bill goes a step further by allowing Americans who have lost loved ones to sue Chinese Communist Party officials and using sanctions to freeze the assets of those individuals.

The Countering Communist China Act is bold but necessary. It is Congress’ responsibility to protect America’s future, restore President Trump’s strong peace, and apply maximum pressure on the Chinese Communist Party.

To protect American sovereignty, our relationship with China must change, and fast.

Kevin Hahn, a Republican, represents Oklahoma’s 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own.