[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 50 (Wednesday, March 17, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1579-S1580]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CHINA
Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, tomorrow, the Secretary of State and
the President's National Security Advisor will have their first face-
to-face meeting with Chinese officials. I am glad our officials met
with regional allies like Japan and South Korea right beforehand and
have been in touch with Australia and European allies as well. It is
essential that we and our friends present a united front.
Now, the United States and the whole world need the President's team
to deliver a strong message tomorrow.
During the campaign, President Biden spoke dismissively about the
threat from China. But thus far, in office, his team has shown signs
they understand that Communist China threatens America, our allies, and
the prevailing international system.
The world spent years presuming that welcoming China into the
international community would inevitably cause its rulers to play by
the rules. Twenty years ago, President Clinton said: ``[E]conomic
innovation and political empowerment . . . will inevitably go hand in
hand.'' But since then, rather than the rest of the world exporting
liberty and transparency into China, Beijing has found more success
exporting authoritarianism and corruption beyond its borders.
[[Page S1580]]
In Japan, on Tuesday, Secretary Blinken called out the ``coercion and
aggression'' that China deploys at home and abroad. He said this
administration will push back on Beijing. That clear-eyed talk is
certainly welcome, but it is just the first step.
Walking the walk will mean actually responding in tough ways to
espionage and cyber attacks, to violations of human rights, to military
bullying, to stealing intellectual property and cheating on trade. If
the administration is up to the task, they will find strong partners in
this Republican conference.
Here is one big test: Are they willing to keep investing in our own
defense?
Our financial commitment to defending America is our most important
policy lever in this competition with China. Our allies and adversaries
do not heed American Presidents because they are charming or good-
looking. The world has respected America for our overwhelming military
and economic superiority. When that edge erodes, we invite trouble.
As a share of our economy, American defense spending has fallen
significantly, not just from Cold War-era heights but even just
recently. Meanwhile, China used its growing prosperity to modernize its
military, develop new and longer range weapons to hold U.S. forces at
risk from further away, and turn a particular eye towards space and
cyber space.
Defense spending is about protecting our homeland. It is about
projecting power. It is about preserving global influence, supporting
our allies. It is really a barometer of our national will.
It is also about innovation and the future. Many life-changing
innovations throughout our economy were first rooted in military R&D.
Unfortunately, reports suggest the Biden administration may plan to
freeze defense spending. Of course, that means a reduction, after
inflation. Dozens of Democrats are pressuring the administration for
even steeper cuts than that. If the administration is serious about
competing with China, deterring Russia, and preserving American
leadership, the most important test will be in the President's budget
submission.
Some of our Senate Democratic colleagues have expressed interest in
crafting bipartisan legislation related to China. If any issue is ripe
for a regular-order, bipartisan process, it would be that one.
Defense spending is the crucial first step, but there are a whole
variety of subjects concerning our competition with China that could
benefit from a serious look.
There is bipartisan support for improving security reviews of foreign
investment and protecting against forced technology transfer, for
cracking down on Chinese espionage and political influence campaigns,
for supporting the people of Hong Kong, and human rights, and deterring
aggression against Taiwan. There is bipartisan support for fostering
specific industries of national-security importance, such as
semiconductors, and for broadly strengthening American R&D.
There is an opportunity for fruitful discussion here. Certainly, this
is an area where bipartisanship will be especially crucial, so
strategies don't change schizophrenically with every election. As one
of our Democratic colleagues said in a hearing yesterday, ``the U.S.
will not out-compete China . . . with short-term legislation and never-
ending uncertainty.''
That is another great argument for not trashing the legislative
filibuster. Imagine if every action the Senate takes with national
security implications were constantly subject to being wiped clean.
While China plans years and decades at a time, our Federal legislation
would be reduced to a shelf life of a couple years.
These issues need to be addressed thoughtfully and deliberately.
Identifying critical technologies and the best ways to promote and
protect advancements needs to be a smart, fact-based process, not a
political guessing game or throwing cash at industries with the right
connections.
Our work on this front should strengthen our ties with our allies and
partners, not try in vain to simply go it alone.
And the Democratic majority must resist the temptation to pile a long
list of unrelated policy wishes into a big package and try to label it
``China policy.'' It would be quite a remarkable coincidence if our
Democratic colleagues' vision for a so-called China bill ends up being
indistinguishable from a list of things that just happen to delight
liberal interest groups.
Getting America on a stronger footing will not require some sweeping
far-left transformation of our economy. It will mean continuing to
complement the principles and ideas that are our greatest strengths,
and it will mean working on these issues the right way, across the
aisle
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