China Select Committee hearing highlights partisan divide on Beijing-countering strategy

The new House China Select Committee previewed its agenda for this Congress in a prime-time evening hearing on Tuesday that revealed early partisan fault lines in the body’s legislative agenda.

The hearing — whose witnesses included former deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger and former national security adviser H.R. McMaster — marked the climax of a full day of intensive congressional scrutiny of China through seven hearings on Tuesday.

In a three-hour event complete with multimedia presentations and hecklers from the activist peace group Code Pink, the committee’s 24 members heard from witnesses who painted a lurid portrait of an America at acute risk from malign Chinese government activities. Witnesses and committee members raised perennial bilateral tensions ranging from Taiwan, trade and TikTok to supply chain security and human rights.

Pottinger spiced up his testimony with a video of quotes by China’s paramount leader Xi Jinping that suggested hostile intentions toward the United States. Pottinger accused the Chinese government of waging “information warfare” on the U.S. and likened it to a series of magicians, calling the Chinese Communist Party “the Harry Houdini of Marxist-Leninist regimes; the David Copperfield of Communism; the Chris Angel of autocracy.” McMaster echoed that assessment and argued that some of the blame lies with leaders in academic, industry, finance and government who’ve exercised “wishful thinking and self-delusion” about China’s intentions.