Bipartisan House China Select Committee Holds First Hearing
Summary from the AllSides News Team
The newly created bipartisan House China Select Committee held its first hearing on Tuesday evening.
The Details: Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) laid out the threat that China poses to U.S. values and interests, and called for a concerted U.S. government response. While Republicans focused on a struggle against China's economic, ideological and military threat, Democrats on the committee focused on a domestic approach backed by government funding for a stronger industrial policy that would bolster U.S. democracy.
Key Quote: “Just because this Congress is divided, we cannot afford to waste the next two years lingering in legislative limbo or pandering for the press,” Gallagher said in his opening remarks. He also warned that failure to respond means “a world crowded with techno-totalitarian surveillance states where human rights are subordinate to the whims of the Party.”
For Context: The hearing was one of the first held by the House's new Republican majority. More hearings are expected as the Biden Administration faces a bipartisan push to take a tougher approach toward Beijing amid concern about the discovery and destruction of a Chinese spy balloon, new questions about COVID-19's origins and a possible lab leak, and rising tensions as U.S. intel suggests China is considering sending Russia weaponry for its Ukraine invasion.
How the Media Covered it: Sources across the spectrum covered the hearing. Some right- and center-rated sources highlighted protesters from left-wing group Code Pink who disrupted the hearing.
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Left
China Select Committee hearing highlights partisan divide on Beijing-countering strategyThe 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 the Center
House Committee Lays Out Case for China ThreatA new House committee focused on China held its first hearing Tuesday, sketching out the threat it says Beijing poses to U.S. interests and values and calling for a concerted U.S. government response.
“We may call this a ‘strategic competition,’” said Rep. Mike Gallagher (R., Wis.) chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, opening the hearing. “But this is not a polite tennis match. This is an existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st century, and the most fundamental freedoms are at stake.”
The committee...
From the Right
Chaos breaks out after anti-war protestors booted from House China Committee hearingThe first hearing held by the House China Select Committee on Tuesday night was disrupted by protestors holding signs reading "China is not our enemy," and "Stop Asian hate."
Two protesters appearing to be affiliated with the anti-war group "Code Pink" interpreted one of the panelists of the hearing, former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, during his opening remarks.
One woman stood up during McMaster's remarks holding a sign reading "China is not our enemy" was escorted out by Capitol police as she was yelling at committee members.
Moments later, a man stood...
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