TOPLINE: Over the last two years, China has caused global destruction by concealing the truth about its initial COVID outbreak. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has also committed horrible human rights abuses against the Uyghurs, and, disturbingly, they have become more aggressive towards Hong Kong and Taiwan. What is Speaker Pelosi’s response? To introduce a package of progressive priorities that gives China an economic and diplomatic upper hand over the United States. There is no reason for any Member of Congress to vote for Democrats’ soft-on-China legislation.
Far-Left Giveaways That Have Nothing to Do with Countering ChinaAt nearly 3,000 pages, Speaker Pelosi’s America Concedes to China Act is a liberal wishlist filled with reckless spending that she knows Republicans will not support. With a total cost of $325 billion, with $54.2 billion in new mandatory spending, Democrats’ legislation does not adequately address the growing threat from the CCP and will cause Bidenflation to increase even more.
Make no mistake – this bill fails to address the growing threats posed by the CCP and is instead a grab bag of socialist handouts and irresponsible expansions of government subsidies.
Specifically, the America Concedes to China Act:
- Authorizes $8 billion for the Green Climate Fund, a United Nations slush fund that has already sent $100 million to the CCP.
- Does not include safeguards to stop further taxpayer money from subsidizing the CCP or funding solar panels and batteries tainted by slave labor and genocide.
- Includes a Solyndra-style slush fund of $3 billion for solar manufacturing.
- Stations “Climate Change Officers” in embassies throughout the world – weakening our diplomats’ focus on core U.S. national security.
- Includes Davis-Bacon provisions throughout the bill – adding costly labor union requirements to previously bipartisan programs.
- Creates a $45 billion slush fund to address supply chain issues that prioritizes labor unions and other special interest allies of the Biden Administration.
- Goes beyond the Build Back Better provision to extend and expand Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) into a $22 billion welfare program.
- Weakens the connection between trade and covered job and sales losses – furthering attempts to pay people not to work.
- Suggests that referring to COVID-19 by names linked to its country of origin – China – is racist.
We Cannot Surrender America’s Competitive Edge to China
The United States cannot – and should not – attempt to replicate the CCP’s massive spending, expansive government subsidies, and centralized, top-down command and control.
Chinese intellectual property theft costs the United States $225 billion to $600 billion a year.
This directly impacts every taxpayer and should warrant immediate action from Congress. Instead, Speaker Pelosi is ignoring China as the largest perpetrator of intellectual property theft.
By 2025, China’s annual STEM Ph.D. graduates are projected to nearly double the amount of U.S. STEM Ph.D. graduates.
To add insult to injury, the CCP has been leveraging its graduates, scholars, and researchers for confidential information from American colleges and businesses that go on to employ them.
In order to compete against China globally, America needs more home-grown STEM graduates to fill these posts and to take concrete steps to counter China’s academic and economic espionage campaign.
Unfortunately, Speaker Pelosi’s legislation will cripple America’s competitive advantage worldwide and bolster the CCP’s intellectual theft and influence campaigns within our universities.
The America Concedes to China Act surrenders our global competitive edge to China by:
- Allowing for an unlimited number of CCP members to take advantage of the new visa program in which individuals with Ph.D. degrees in STEM fields would be exempt from annual green card caps.
- Allowing research funding to freely flow to colleges and universities that host Confucius Institutes, which the CCP uses to exert influence on campuses.
- Weakening sanctions from the Department of Education on higher education institutions that fail to disclose large donations and contracts with foreign actors, including the CCP.
Democrats Are Not Serious About Confronting China
The America Concedes to China Act is carelessly written – it is full of errors and provisions calling for things that are significantly outdated.
For example, Section 30243 calls for the release of two innocent Canadian citizens who had been arbitrarily held hostage by the CCP.
However, those Canadian citizens were released in September of 2021 – more than four months ago.
The legislation also calls for the Biden Administration to release a report on the possible origins of COVID-19.
But that report was issued in August 2021 – more than five months ago.
In President Biden’s Statement of Administrative Policy in favor of H.R. 4521, he does not mention the word “China” once when he voices his support for the bill.
Democrats’ sloppiness damages the United States’ global standing and reveals that they are not taking the CCP seriously.
Republicans Have A Plan to Counter the Chinese Communist Party
In September 2020, the China Task Force released a report with more than 400 recommendations about how the United States can successfully counter the CCP’s pursuit of power.
Two-thirds of the legislative recommendations had bipartisan support in Congress.
Some of these recommendations called for:
Ideological Competition
- Organizing an entirely new government framework to counteract the CCP’s hostile communist ideology, which threatens the American way of life.
- Creating a robust government information system that combats CCP’s disinformation and propaganda machine.
- Holding the CCP accountable within the United Nations by requiring more transparency and accountability.
Supply Chain
- Introducing targeted and tactical tax incentives to bolster the United States’ research, development, and production of necessary medical equipment, such as tests, vaccines, and ingredients for different medicines.
Technology
- Exposing security risks associated with 5G and encouraging technological partnerships between the United States and its allies to keep our networks free of the CCP’s influence.
- Securing the United States global leadership in immerging technologies, including A.I., quantum, 5G, and autonomous vehicles
- Sanctioning CCP surrogates engaged in economic or industrial espionage and any CCP entity that attempts to take bio and medical research, including COVID-19 vaccines
National Security
- Modernizing the Department of Defense’s force structure, posture, operational concepts, and acquisitions in order to maintain our military advantage over the CCP and deter their territorial expansion
Economics and Energy
- Creating a new framework for the U.S. government to solidify a unified partnership with our partners and allies on energy export control and retaining our critical technologies, including semiconductor manufacturing equipment, from our adversaries.
- Applying greater analysis for investments in and joint ventures with Chinese companies.
Competitiveness
- Strengthening the protection of key research on America’s colleges and universities that lead research institutions which include restricting all federal employees and contracting from participating in foreign talent programs
- Acting against the malign CCP influence in the U.S. university system, by enforcing disclosure requirements for foreign payments within universities.
- Prioritizing the United States’ advantage in higher education and ensuring Americans are best positioned to gain the skills needed in critical technology industries.
If Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats were serious about passing a bipartisan bill that would actually counter the CCP’s aggressive expansion, they would have partnered with House Republicans.