China’s communist regime is engaged in a concerted effort to undermine and replace the United States by weaponizing Americans against one another, according to testimony received by a new congressional committee focused on competition with the regime.
The House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) held its first hearing on Feb. 28, titled simply “The Chinese Communist Party’s Threat to America.”
Committee Chair Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) described the competition between the United States and CCP as an “existential struggle,” and said that the CCP, which rules China as a single-party state, was pitting “America against America,” hoping to topple the United States from within.
Ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) agreed with the assessment, saying that the regime sought to exploit the political divisions endemic to democratic societies against the United States.
“The CCP wants us to be fractious, partisan, and prejudiced,” Krishnamoorthi said.
“We must rise to the occasion and prove them wrong.”
To that end, however, Gallagher noted that many powerful and monied interests within the United States had made their fortunes outsourcing American jobs to China, and were pushing back on U.S. efforts to secure itself against the regime.
“The CCP has found friends on Wall Street, in Fortune 500 C-suites, and on K Street who are ready and willing to oppose efforts to push back,” Gallagher said.
“This strategy has worked well in the past, and the CCP is confident it will work again. Our task on this committee is to ensure that it does not.”
‘Tech-Powered Dystopia’
Former National Security adviser H.R. McMaster testified on the issue, saying that the United States had “fallen behind” in the strategic competition with the CCP and that continued investments into China by American corporations were “underwriting our own demise.”
McMaster said that the “false promises of liberalization” had led to a corporate and political class within America that had largely expected continued investment in China to transform it into a more modern and democratic society.
Instead, he said, the regime had doubled down on its Marxist ideology and was now exporting destructive ideologies to erode support for the West.
To that end, McMaster said that a “curriculum of self loathing,” which asserts the United States is the reason for the world’s problems, had taken hold of much of the popular and academic culture in the West, and prevented the nation from adequately defending itself against continued espionage, theft, and repression by the CCP.
Likewise, Rep. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) said that corporate America was “scared and worried” about the possibility of angering CCP authorities, and that the regime was exploiting that fear to undermine the United States on the world stage.
“China has a plan to replace the United States,” LaHood said.
As such, Gallagher said that the Select Committee would help to coordinate legislative efforts from across congressional committees, and focus on tackling the CCP’s ideological, technological, economic, and military efforts against the United States and its allies and partners.
The time to prevent the CCP from replacing the United States with a “tech-powered dystopia,” Gallagher said, was now.
“The CCP is laser-focused on its vision for the future,” Gallagher said. “A world crowded with techno-totalitarian surveillance states where human rights are subordinate to the whims of the Party.”
“For the time being, it’s still up to us to decide if that’s the future we want for our children, but it won’t be for much longer. Time is not on our side.”
CCP Preparing for War
In addition to seeking to replace the United States, the CCP is also preparing for war, the Select Committee heard.
Speaking on the issue of the regime’s ambition to invade Taiwan, former deputy National Security adviser Matthew Pottinger said that the CCP’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), was preparing for such a conflict, including the possibility that it would have to fight the United States.
“The PLA has been receiving massive amounts of investment … to try to fill gaps that they would need to fill to be able to invade Taiwan,” Pottinger said.
“We know that the PLA is training for the likelihood that the U.S. would be part of the fight.”
Said capabilities included amphibious and air lift platforms, missiles, and long-range capabilities designed to deter the United States from entering a war between the CCP and Taiwan’s democratic government.
To that end, Pottinger also noted that CCP leader Xi Jinping regularly praised former CCP leader Mao Zedong’s approval of using preemptive strikes against adversaries, and had expressed a willingness to see China destroyed in order to rebuild it without American influence.
Asked whether or not the regime might attempt a preemptive attack on the United States to prevent it from coming to Taiwan’s aid, Potting said simply, “It’s possible.”
“There’s no longer any excuse for being fooled about Beijing’s intentions,” Pottinger said. “The canon of Chairman Xi’s publicly available statements is too voluminous, and the accumulated actions of his regime too brazen, to be misunderstood at this late hour.”
“The proverbial fig leaf has blown away, exposing the regime and its deep hostility toward the democratic West and the liberal international order.”
From The Epoch Times
