The Select: A Weekly Committee Recap (Week of 10/30)

Welcome to The Select, a weekly newsletter on the work of the Congressional Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party led by Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI).

See below for last week's updates.

Gallagher: Why Do Young Americans Support Hamas? Look at TikTok.

On Wednesday, Chairman Gallagher published an op-ed in The Free Press where he argues TikTok is "digital fentanyl made by China, and it is brainwashing our youth against the country and our allies."

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How did we reach a point where a majority of young Americans hold such a morally bankrupt view of the world? Where many young Americans were rooting for terrorists who had kidnapped American citizens—and against a key American ally? Where were they getting the raw news to inform this upside-down world view?

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TikTok is not just an app teenagers use to make viral dance videos. A growing number of Americans rely on it for their news. Today, TikTok is the top search engine for more than half of Gen Z, and about six in ten Americans are hooked on the app before their seventeenth birthday. And it is controlled by America’s foremost adversary, one that does not share our interests or our values: the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

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Here in America, the application’s algorithm is exquisitely tuned to prioritize polarizing outrage and addictive, brain-numbing nonsense (at best) and dangerous propaganda (at worst). Put differently, ByteDance and the CCP have decided that China’s children get spinach, and America’s get digital fentanyl. 

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And we are absolutely hooked, with 16 percent of teens using it “almost constantly.” Today, 69.7 percent of Americans aged 12–17, 76.2 percent aged 18–24, and 54 percent aged 25–34 use TikTok. By tweaking the TikTok algorithm, the CCP can censor information and influence Americans of all ages on a variety of issues. It can shape what facts they consider accurate, and what conclusions they draw from world events. 

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We know for a fact that the CCP uses TikTok to push its propaganda and censor views that diverge from the party line. Reports have confirmed that TikTok spied on journalists who wrote negative stories about TikTok. Via TikTok, Chinese state media pushed divisive information about U.S. politicians ahead of midterm elections. .

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In the best-case scenario, TikTok is CCP spyware—that’s why governments have banned it on official phones. In the worst-case scenario, TikTok is perhaps the largest scale malign influence operation ever conducted. 

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So long as TikTok—and control of its algorithm—remain in the grip of the Chinese Communist Party, we are ceding the ability to censor Americans’ speech to a foreign adversary. Time for Congress to take action. Time to ban TikTok.

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Click HERE to read Chairman Gallagher's full op-ed.

Gallagher, Krishnamoorthi Call for Effective Implementation of Outbound Investment Executive Order

On Tuesday. Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and Chinese Communist Party, sent a letter to Janet Yellen, Secretary of the Treasury, with recommendations for the implementation of the Biden Administration's August Executive Order on outbound American investment in China.

The recommendations are:

• Treasury should implement the E.O. urgently
• Treasury should adopt a broad definition of covered technology sectors that reflects the CCP’s expansive concept of national security
• Treasury should bolster coordination with our allies and partners as it moves forward with the implementation of this E.O.
• Congress should consider passive flows of capital as well, like mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and index funds – and the administration should support such efforts

In part, the lawmakers write, “We also should not allow American capital to enable the CCP’s techno-totalitarian surveillance state and genocide and forced labor in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).”

Click HERE to view a copy of the letter.

'This app, which increasingly young Americans get their news from — is controlled by a Chinese company that is at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party.' - Rep. Gallagher joins Fox News to argue for the ban of TikTok

Gallagher, Colleagues Introduce Bipartisan American Security Drone Act

On Wednesday, Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT) today introduced the American Security Drone Act of 2023 alongside Select Committee Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) and Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA). The act would prohibit the federal government from purchasing drones manufactured in countries identified as national security threats, such as the People's Republic of China (PRC).

“The Chinese Communist Party consistently weaponizes its near monopoly on the drone market against the good guys; restricting drone exports to Ukraine while Hamas uses them to perpetrate brutal terrorist attacks,” said Chairman Gallagher. “This bill would prohibit the federal government from using American taxpayer dollars to purchase this equipment from countries like China, supporting the PRC’s malign behavior and posing a serious national security threat to the U.S. and our allies. It is imperative that Congress pass this bipartisan bill to protect U.S. interests and our national security supply-chain."

“The American Security Drone Act takes important action to reduce the United States government’s reliance on foreign-manufactured drone technology. While there’s a clear need for unmanned surveillance capabilities, we cannot subvert our national security imperatives for the sake of expediency, particularly when American manufacturers have the ability to fill this need,” said Rep. Courtney.

“The American Security Drone Act helps protect against any vulnerabilities posed by our government agencies’ reliance on foreign-manufactured drone technology and will encourage growth in the U.S. drone industry in the face of unfair and predatory competition from the People’s Republic of China. This bill will help protect data security, ensure our national security is not at risk, and strengthen American supply chains in the future. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the House and Senate to pass this bipartisan bill as soon as possible," said Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi.

“If America is to prevail in this era of great power competition, the U.S. government cannot be using drones manufactured by our adversaries,” said Rep. Wittman. “I am proud to join my colleagues from across the aisle in reintroducing the American Security Drone Act, which will promote American superiority and competitiveness within the drone market, protect against IP theft and data security violations by the Chinese Communist Party, and fortify our national security.”

The American Security Drone Act:

• Prohibits federal departments and agencies from operating or procuring any covered unmanned aircraft system manufactured or assembled by covered foreign entities, including PRC-based drone manufacturers.
• Prohibits the use of federal funds awarded through contracts, grants, or cooperative agreements to purchase covered unmanned aircraft systems.
• Requires the Comptroller General of the United States to submit a report to Congress detailing the amount of foreign commercial off-the-shelf drones and covered unmanned aircraft systems procured by federal departments and agencies from covered foreign entities.

Click HERE for bill text.

Gallagher, Rubio, Select Committee Members Urge Sec. Raimondo to Safeguard American Chip Design from Chinese Communist Party Threat

On Thursday, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, alongside Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and a number of their colleagues on the Select Committee, today sent a letter to Commerce Secretary, Gina Raimondo, calling on the Department to leverage export control authorities to fight against the misuse of open-source technology by the Chinese Communist Party.

In the letter, the lawmakers write, “The industry of chip design is currently dominated by western firms, a chokepoint that the United States has leveraged with its export controls on advanced computing and semiconductors going to the PRC. While the benefits of open-source collaboration on RISC-V promise to be significant, it can only be realized when contributors are working with the sole aim of improving the technology, and not aiding the geopolitical interests of the PRC. In response, the United States should build a robust ecosystem for open-source collaboration among the U.S. and our allies while ensuring the PRC is unable to benefit from that work."

In addition to Chairman Gallagher, Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi, and Senator Rubio, the letter was penned by Reps. Kathy Castor (D-FL), Rob Wittman (R-VA), Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO), Haley Stevens (D-MI), Andy Barr (R-KY), Dan Newhouse (R-WA), John Moolenar (R-MI), Darin LaHood (R-IL), Neal Dunn (R-FL), Jim Banks (R-IN), Dusty Johnson (R-SD), Ashley Hinson (R-IA), and Carlos Gimenez (R-FL).

In order to preserve technological innovation but also protect U.S. national security interests, the lawmakers ask Secretary Raimondo a number of questions, including:

• What is the Administration’s plan to prevent the PRC from achieving dominance in the RISC-V technology and leveraging that dominance at the expense of U.S. national and economic security?
• What are the potential national security risks posed by the expanding use of RISC-V technology? How do existing U.S. government policies related to the use of open-source technologies in sensitive systems address these risks?
• How would PRC dominance in RISC-V hardware affect the cybersecurity concerns related to Internet of Things and its application to critical infrastructure?

Click HERE to view a copy of the letter.

Moolenaar, LaHood Introduce NO GOTION Act to Stop Taxpayer Funding of CCP Companies, Co-Sponsored by Chairman Gallagher

On Thursday, Congressman John Moolenaar and Congressman Darin LaHood (R-IL) have introduced the No Official Giveaways Of Taxpayers’ Income to Oppressive Nations (NO GOTION) Act. The bill would prohibit companies affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from receiving green energy production tax credits implemented by the Biden administration in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The legislation comes in response to Gotion Inc., a subsidiary of the CCP-affiliated Gotion High-Tech, planning to build battery factories in Michigan and Illinois, which would qualify for the tax credits under the IRA.

“The NO GOTION Act is a simple three-page bill that will prohibit CCP-affiliated companies, including Gotion, from receiving the federal tax dollars of hardworking American families. If America is going to have a secure energy supply, we cannot give federal tax credits to CCP-controlled companies and allow them to expand their influence in the U.S.,” said Moolenaar. “Quite simply, the tax dollars of the American people should not be used to pad the profits of a company beholden to the CCP.” 

“As a member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the House Intelligence Committee, I have seen the malign efforts that the CCP, and other foreign adversaries like Iran and Russia, are engaged in to undermine our domestic supply chains and national security,” said LaHood. “Hard-working taxpayers should not be on the hook for billions in federal subsidies funneling to companies beholden to malign actors, like the CCP. It is clear that the so-called ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ is being leveraged by foreign adversaries to exploit loopholes to gain generous incentives and dominate key technologies in the United States. Congress and the federal government should be promoting pro-growth tax policy that supports American businesses and this commonsense bill is a positive step to get us back on track.”

“Under no circumstance should the United States allow our adversaries to benefit from American taxpayers’ hard-earned income,” said Congressman Rob Wittman (VA-01), a co-sponsor of the legislation. “I am proud to join my colleagues in introducing the NO GOTION Act, which is a critical measure to deny green energy tax benefits from going to companies that are created, organized, or controlled by Russia, Iran, North Korea, and China.” 

...In a recent Foreign Agents Registration Act filing, Gotion Inc. claimed it was “wholly owned and controlled by” Gotion High-Tech, which is based in China. According to Gotion High-Tech’s bylaws, it is required "to carry out Party activities in accordance with the Constitution of the [Chinese Communist Party].” 

Click HERE to read the full NO GOTION ACT bill.

Click HERE to read the official Press Release from Rep. John Moolenaar.