China’s communist regime is engaged in a concerted effort to undermine and replace the United States as the world’s most powerful nation by weaponizing Americans against each other, U.S. lawmakers were told this week.
The House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) convened on Feb. 28 for its first hearing, which was titled “The Chinese Communist Party’s Threat to America.”
Committee Chair Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) described the competition between the United States and the CCP as an “existential struggle.” The Republican congressman said that the CCP, which rules China as a single-party state, is pitting “America against America,” hoping to topple the United States from within.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), the panel’s ranking Democrat, agreed with the assessment, saying that the regime seeks to exploit political divisions in the United States that are endemic to democratic societies.
“The CCP wants us to be fractious, partisan, and prejudiced,” Krishnamoorthi said.
“We must rise to the occasion and prove them wrong.”
To that end, however, Gallagher noted that many powerful and monied interests within the United States had made their fortunes outsourcing U.S. jobs to China, and were pushing back on American efforts to secure itself against the regime.
“The CCP has found friends on Wall Street, in Fortune 500 C-suites, and on K Street who are ready and willing to oppose efforts to push back,” Gallagher said.
“This strategy has worked well in the past, and the CCP is confident it will work again. Our task on this committee is to ensure that it does not.”
‘Tech-Powered Dystopia’
Former national security adviser H.R. McMaster testified on the issue, saying that the United States had “fallen behind” in the strategic competition with the CCP and that continued investments in China by U.S. corporations are “underwriting our own demise.”
