The United States is running out of time to confront China over Taiwan, human rights and other issues, the head of a special congressional committee said Tuesday in Washington as the panel held its first hearing.
“We may call this a ‘strategic competition,’ but it's not a polite tennis match,” said Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher, the head of the panel. “This is an existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st century, and the most fundamental freedoms are at stake.”
But Gallagher warned that “time is not on our side” when it comes to the challenge he said that China represents on a number of fronts.
“We must act with a sense of urgency,” he said. “I believe our policy over the next 10 years will set the stage for the next 100.”
Gallagher, head of the bipartisan House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), had said he viewed the high-profile hearing — the opening salvo in a number of meetings over the next two years — as part of a push to convince more in the U.S. of the need to vigorously compete with Beijing.
The committee of 13 Republicans and 11 Democrats used the hearing to discuss a number of issues facing the U.S., from alleged Chinese human rights violations to Beijing’s designs on Taiwan, which could have broad ramifications for Japan and the region.
Gallagher has said the committee, which will not draw up legislation but will make recommendations for bills, will also focus on how to "selectively decouple" the U.S. and Chinese economies, especially in the tech sector.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the committee’s ranking Democrat, said that while there has been a notable shift in a number of areas of U.S. policy toward China, an all-of-government approach was necessary after years of attempting to work with Beijing.
"Over the last three decades, both Democrats and Republicans underestimated the CCP, and assumed that trade and investment would inevitably lead to democracy and greater security in the Indo-Pacific region,” Krishnamoorthi said. “Instead the opposite happened.”
Tuesday's hearing heard from four witnesses, including retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, who served as former U.S. President Donald Trump's national security adviser; Matt Pottinger, a known China hawk and former deputy national security adviser to Trump; Chinese dissident Tong Yi; and Scott Paul, head of the Alliance for American Manufacturing.
Early on, the hearing was interrupted by two protesters holding signs saying "China is not our enemy,” with one yelling, “this committee is about saber-rattling, it’s not about peace.” Both were quickly ushered out by police.
But it was clear from the get-go that Democrats and Republicans were aligned on the need for bolstering the United States’ military and economic power in Asia.
"In the Pacific, we can’t afford to let deterrence fail,” Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton said.
McMaster, asked about deterring China from invading self-ruled Taiwan, said that “peace through strength” — including harnessing the military power of allies and partners — was crucial.
“I think it's immensely encouraging that Japan is doubling its defense investment,” McMaster said of Tokyo’s plan to hike its defense budget by more than 50% over five years from this year to around ¥43 trillion ($315 billion).
McMaster also cited new defense cooperation arrangements, including the AUKUS partnership between the U.S., the U.K. and Australia — which is seen as a counter to growing Chinese naval power in the Indo-Pacific — but said that much more needed to be done.
“I think we have to recognize that we are very far behind,” he added.
China considers democratically ruled Taiwan to be one of its unassailable “core interests” that must be brought back into the fold, by force if necessary. Chinese leader Xi Jinping used a twice-a-decade Communist Party congress in October to reiterate that China will never renounce the use of force in resolving “the Taiwan question."
Washington has maintained a “One China” policy since 1979, officially recognizing Beijing rather than Taipei, taking the stance that Taiwan's status is unsettled. But the U.S. has increasingly publicized its engagements with Taiwan amid fears that China could be looking to invade in the near future, something American military commanders have said could take place by 2027 or even as soon as 2025.
Amid the tumult, defense planners in Tokyo have also begun to seriously prepare for a possible conflict over the democratic island, despite repeated statements by top U.S. and Japanese officials reaffirming their commitment to “peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”
“We do not want a war with the (People’s Republic of China), not a cold war, not a hot war,” Krishnamoorthi said Tuesday. “We don’t want a clash of civilizations. But we seek a durable peace and that is why we have to deter aggression.”
In the deeply divided U.S. Congress, taking a hard line on China has become one of the few issues in which both Republicans and Democrats have found common ground.
U.S. President Joe Biden has largely kept in place or ramped up the tough policies put in place by Trump, including maintaining his predecessor’s China tariffs.
But Biden has also brought the hammer down on Beijing as Washington seeks to slow its technological and military rise, imposing sweeping restrictions on semiconductor exports to China.
Asked about the export restrictions and other measures taken by the White House, the Alliance for American Manufacturing’s Paul highlighted the “critically important” role of Japan and the Netherlands in signing on to the moves, which he said were crucial to their success.
“If China wants to develop high-tech semiconductors in the future, it’s going to have to try to do it indigenously, without the United States or our allies handing over the keys to the CCP,” he said.
Last month, U.S.-China tensions also surged after Biden ordered the shootdown of a suspected Chinese spy balloon traveling over U.S. territory, including sensitive military sites. Beijing denied the claims, saying it was a wayward balloon not linked to its government.
The incident, as well as the shootdowns of three other unidentified objects in the days following, garnered massive media attention and triggered a diplomatic crisis that continues to roil ties.
Ian Chong, a professor at the National University of Singapore and an expert on U.S.-China relations, said that while there is a need in the United States to persuade the public to support long-term competition with China, winning over and maintaining public sentiment via a congressional committee may at the start prove challenging.
"But once there is momentum, it is likely to continue," said Chong.
"The risk, of course, is that once there is significant public buy in, adjustment, calibration, and even accommodation could become more difficult," he added. "That could encourage politicians to further amplify concerns about the (People's Republic of China), sometimes going beyond what may be fully supported by evidence. Such conditions could make the U.S.-PRC relationship rockier."
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