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WATCH: Video summary of the main findings in the Select Committee's new report: "The CCP's Investors: How American Venture Capital Fuels the PRC Military and Human Rights Abuses". Read the summary HERE.
On Thursday, Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) unveiled the findings of their bipartisan investigation into five U.S. venture capital firms. The lawmakers found that these firms invested at least $3 billion in, and provided expertise and other benefits to, People's Republic of China (PRC) critical technology companies, including many aiding the Chinese military, surveillance state, or the CCP's genocide in Xinjiang.
The five firms used as case studies in the investigation are GGV Capital, GSR Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Sequoia Capital China, and Walden International. Chairman Gallagher and Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi uncovered that these firms funneled over $1.9 billion to AI companies that support China’s human rights abuses or military, and at least another $1.2 billion into the PRC’s semiconductor sector– including semiconductor companies that advance the CCP’s military, genocidal, and techno-totalitarian ambitions. The report also highlights other investments that may raise significant security or human rights concerns.
In the report, the lawmakers write, “The Committee’s findings suggest that there are billions of dollars beyond those captured in this report that have flowed into PRC companies that support the PRC’s military, digital authoritarianism, and efforts to develop technological supremacy and undermine American technological leadership. The status quo is untenable. . . . Decades of investment—including funding, knowledge transfer, and other intangible benefits—from U.S. VCs have helped build and strengthen the PRC’s priority sectors.”
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Wednesday, Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party wrote to the Departments of Defense and Transportation, exposing critical deficiencies in the United States’ military sealift capabilities in the Indo-Pacific. The Chinese military has embarked on an unprecedented naval buildup. Meanwhile, our aging and underfunded fleet of sealift ships will be relied on to transport ninety percent of all Army and Marine Corps equipment to support large-scale operations in the Indo-Pacific. Gallagher called the current situation a “screaming national security vulnerability.”
Chairman Gallagher wrote, “Sealift has long been an essential element of our national security strategy... Now, in the middle of a new Cold War, the United States finds itself with neither the sufficient military nor civil resources to meet our sealift objective.”
Gallagher continues, saying the situation, “[H]as led to a perfect storm in which the United States appears unprepared to carry out major sealift operations during a crisis.”
Chairman Gallagher also emphasized the significant gap between the U.S. and Chinese military sealift capacity. He highlighted the United States’ meager 60 ship military sealift fleet. The United States currently has a total of 177 merchant ships, down from 600 merchant ships in 1990. By comparison, China maintains a 5,500-ship merchant fleet. Moreover, the average age of U.S. sealift ships is 45 years old. A 2019 Department of Defense exercise revealed that only 40 percent of the then 61-ship fleet sealift fleet was ready for mobilization.
Chairman Gallagher called for an immediate expansion of U.S. sealift capacity, requesting information from the Departments about the current sealift fleet and plans for fleet expansion.
Read Chairman Gallagher's letter HERE.
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On Monday, Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) released a statement applauding the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology's call to restrict CCP-aligned biotech firms BGI, and Wuxi Apptec. These companies collect genetic data Americans' genetic data for the Chinese government and military.
The lawmakers said, "We welcome the bipartisan National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology’s endorsement of the policy behind our bipartisan, bicameral BIOSECURE Act. United States taxpayers should not fund foreign adversary biotech companies like BGI Group, its subsidiaries, and WuXi AppTec, all of which are collecting Americans’ genomic data and other sensitive health information to fuel the CCP’s biotech ambitions. We look forward to working with the Commission to protect American genomic data from the Chinese Communist Party."
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