'We Want To Be Secure From China': Andy Biggs Decries CCP Influence

last month

During a House Oversight Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) questioned witnesses about the development of Chinese threats to US holdings, and efforts to dissuade and confront the CCP's expanding influence.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00Ms. Porter.

00:01Mr. Porter.

00:02Chair recognizes Mr. Biggs from Arizona.

00:03Mr. Biggs.

00:04Thanks, Mr. Chairman.

00:05And I appreciate all the witnesses being here.

00:06I appreciate this.

00:07I apologize for having to step out for a portion of your testimony.

00:12I did hear the Ranking Member, and I thought at first he was talking about former presidential

00:21candidate Hillary Clinton claiming the 2016 election was stolen, and with all of the groups

00:28on the left that asserted that for literally six years now.

00:33But then I realized, no, no, he's got TDS.

00:36That would be wrong.

00:37So leaving the political side of it out now, I thank you for your testimony.

00:42And I'll just say, Captain Finnell, in your book, Embracing Communist China and America's

00:47Greatest Strategic Failure, which I recently read, you argue that the United States should

00:53employ a modern day Truman Doctrine to counter the Chinese Communist Party.

00:58And there's some significant contextual differences between what was going on post World War II

01:04with where we are today and the immersion of the Cold War.

01:11I'm wondering if you would discuss and tell us what aspects of the Truman Doctrine you

01:19think need to be implemented today with regard to China.

01:24Well, I think that we need to look back on that history and understand that we were coming

01:31out of a world war and that we were coming out of a time where we didn't know what the

01:36future would lead to with a threat from the Soviet Union.

01:41And so the government under Truman and his doctrine was designed to make sure that we

01:46were defending ourselves against this potential threat, and so that we used the resources

01:52that we had to make sure that our government and our country were able to defend ourselves

01:58against a threat that we didn't know everything about it, but we knew that it had malign intentions

02:04for us.

02:05And I think that's the difference of what hasn't happened over the last 75 years is

02:10we haven't labeled the PRC as that threat, which the Truman Doctrine did with the Soviet

02:15Union, and that we didn't draw the distinctions in the line in the sand for a lot of reasons,

02:21and there was, you know, we understand why we engaged with China.

02:25For a lot of reasons, we did not perceive China as a threat because economically they

02:31were backwards, and we did not view them as a capable military threat legitimately.

02:38And so we then facilitated their rise and their move from basically a third world economy

02:46with no technology.

02:47We allowed them to skip literally generations of technological development because we facilitated

02:54their theft of our IP and our technology.

02:57And so I appreciate what you're saying that, and so I'm thinking of all the things that

03:03I know went on in the Cold War, all the things we did, whether it was imposition on corporations,

03:08what we were selling, what we would allow in, the exchanges of people across the borders,

03:15not just directly U.S. to Soviet Union, but affiliates and within the blocks of countries.

03:24So, Mr. Bethel, your statement, you talk about a comprehensive strategy, and I kind of I've

03:31sensed that that's what all of you talk about.

03:33I'm trying to get specific iterated issues that we can look at, create legislation, and

03:42do what we're supposed to do, which is impose laws to enact policy, well, impose policy

03:48to enact laws, vice versa, it doesn't matter.

03:50But can you give me some of your strategies when you say a comprehensive strategy dealing

03:54with China?

03:56I have to be sensitive about what I say because I recognize that the CCP could be listening,

04:02so I'm happy to take this on.

04:04I anticipate that they are.

04:06But I think the first strategy is to know what you want.

04:09I don't think we know what we want as a country, and so if you don't know where you're going,

04:12then any road will take you in any direction.

04:15Yeah.

04:16Okay, so that's an old kotowaza, as we would say in Japanese.

04:22But the bottom line is we want to be secure from China.

04:30We want to have control of our destiny.

04:32When China, the middle kingdom, they want to become the hegemon, the world hegemon.

04:43And that is the problem that we face, is dealing with a country that is willing to

04:49emasculate itself in order to gain the upper hand.

04:55And so that's why I'm asking, maybe you feel more comfortable talking in a skiff or something,

05:02but I'm trying to get specific items, not generic items.

05:08Should we be limiting student visas from China, for instance?

05:13Maybe we should.

05:14We probably should.

05:16Should we then, and Ms. Kissel, in your document, you were talking specifically about how we

05:23are treated by CCP on diplomacy, and diplomats, and visitors, et cetera.

05:32Should we be doing the same?

05:33Should we be restricting travel of Chinese diplomats here?

05:37And I'd like to know.

05:39100%.

05:40We talked a lot about reciprocity in the Trump administration, but there's a long way to

05:46go.

05:47We do not have freedom of movement in China.

05:48They should not have freedom of movement here.

05:50Our consular affairs people, as I say in my testimony, should be clearly vetting every

05:55person who enters from communist China for military intelligence security ties.

06:00We should be limiting Chinese students who are coming here to study STEM.

06:04We should be talking to our European allies and encouraging them to forbid Chinese students

06:09who come from military universities in China for studying in European universities or Australian

06:14or Japanese universities, for instance.

06:16There's an enormous amount that the State Department can do.

06:19Aside from just the actions that I've outlined here, rhetorically, we need to issue clear,

06:25comprehensive travel warnings.

06:27I fought very hard when I was at State to get the Consular Affairs Bureau to put accurate,

06:33complete warnings out about the risk of travel.

06:36We now have different travel warnings for mainland China than we do for Hong Kong.

06:41These aren't functionally different places.

06:42They're one and the same.

06:44It should be the same level.

06:46Just to give you one example, but I agree with Eric that it has to be a comprehensive

06:50strategy and we have to stop being defensive.

06:54We need an offensive strategy that plays to our strength and that also utilizes not just

06:59our own power economically, militarily, and otherwise, but the power of our friends and

07:04allies because we also have friends and allies that aren't just democracies.

07:08There are places like Vietnam, for instance, not a democracy that very clearly recognized

07:13the threat from communist China.

07:15We need to leverage that relationship across the spectrum of federal power and use it.

07:20Thank you.

07:21Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

07:22And I'll just say, having met with Central American leaders over the last couple of months,

07:28they're really concerned about the influence China's having in their nations, and you're

07:32right about them controlling, like Panama, or trying to get control of Panama.

07:36I think of Sri Lanka.

07:37I think of what happened there.

07:38I mean, I'll yield back.

07:41Very good.

07:42Very good.

07:43Chair recognizes Mr. Timmons from South Carolina.

'We Want To Be Secure From China': Andy Biggs Decries CCP Influence

Category

Transcript

Recommended