(Article by Alex Timothy republished from ThePostMillennial.com)
The committee will be headed by Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher, who is steadfastly critical of China. Lawmakers voted 365-65 to establish the panel, Politico reports.
“Here’s the good news: There is bipartisan consensus that the era of trusting communist China is over,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said.
This decision shows that there is growing bipartisan distrust with the Asian nation, whose economy is the second largest in the world behind the US. McCarthy promised that Americans will “win this competition” with Beijing.
The establishment of this committee was the second measure passed by the GOP-led House.
Both Biden’s and Trump’s administrations had singled out China as the most significant long-term threat to the country’s national security. The creation of this committee comes as Congress has approved massive military spending increases, and as the Chinese military threatens an invasion of Taiwan.
China launched a massive air and sea combat exercise around Taiwan on Sunday, fueling speculation that Beijing was looking to invade the island nation. Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is hopeful that a war with China over the fate of Taiwan can be avoided, but that it would take “hard work.”
Lawmakers also authorized billions in military aid for Taiwan in response to China’s threatening behavior.
Gallagher’s plan for the committee is to help separate the United States from its trade and economic ties with China, increase the US military posture, and to eliminate the theft of US intellectual property.
“It is time to understand the urgency of the threat. It is time to reclaim our economic independence in key areas,” Gallagher said. “The select committee will expose the [Chinese Communist Party]’s coordinated whole-of-society strategy to undermine American leadership and American sovereignty while working on a bipartisan basis … to identify long-overdue, commonsense approaches to counter CCP aggression.”
He is hoping to build a bipartisan consensus on China, with the plan being to put party lines to the side and work together to “prevent World War III from breaking out” and “to win this new Cold War with Communist China.”
Read more at: ThePostMillennial.com