MEDIA PACKAGE: Select Committee on CCP Holds Hearing - "The Great Firewall and the CCP’s Export of its Techno-Authoritarian Surveillance State"
WASHINGTON, D.C.- The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party held a hearing this morning titled "The Great Firewall and the CCP's Export of its Techno-Authoritarian Surveillance State." Witnesses included Mr. Nat Kretchun, Senior Vice President for Programs at the Open Technology Fund, Dr. Zack Cooper, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and Mr. Xiao Qiang, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the China Digital Times.
Watch highlights from the hearing below.
Video & B-roll for public broadcast and distribution is available HERE
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Chairman John Moolenaar:
"With an army of censors boosted by artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technology, [the Great Firewall] monitors all information and expression within China, rapidly stamping out anything that diverges from the party line."
Click HERE for Chairman Moolenaar's opening remarks as prepared for delivery.
Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi:
“We cannot allow the Chinese Communist Party to control the internet which was designed to connect people, not to divide and control them…. This is a fight the US cannot afford to lose.”
Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer:
“Why are we trying to help the country that’s trying to take us over? If this were Nazi Germany, would we be investing in that? I don’t think so. China is our mortal enemy here and we continue to fund them. We need to be stopping all investment and sanction them.”
Mr. Nat Kretchun, Senior Vice President for Programs, Open Technology Fund:
“If we don’t contest China’s model of internet substitution… we’ll be unable to counter it where it spreads. There’s no message the U.S. could deliver that’s… more powerful than helping facilitate Chinese citizens’ own search for the truth.”
Read Mr. Kretchun's testimony HERE.
Dr. Zach Cooper, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute:
“Authoritarian tools developed by Beijing will not stay in China. Over the last decade the Chinese government has exported… surveillance technologies to over 80 countries worldwide. These tools will be adopted by autocrats from Russia to Iran and beyond.”
Read Dr. Cooper's testimony HERE.
Mr. Xiao Qiang, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, China Digital Times:
“The CCP is providing the world with a blueprint for establishing a digital totalitarian state and presenting a real threat to the world peace.We must work in solidarity to defend and preserve freedom and dignity at home and globally.”
Read Mr. Qiang's testimony HERE.