The Select: A Weekly Committee Recap (Week of 7/22)
Welcome to The Select, a weekly newsletter on the work of the Congressional Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party led by Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI).
See below for this week's updates.
On Tuesday, Chairman Moolenaar and Select Committee members held a hearing 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.
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.”
'Mr. Xi, Tear Down this Firewall' - Moolenaar in Newsweek
In an op-ed published by Newsweek, Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) urged Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping to remove authoritarian barriers to the internet in China.
“...The Great Firewall inhibits contact between Chinese citizens and the outside world. Information is stopped from flowing into China and the Chinese people are not allowed to get information out. Facebook, X, Instagram, and YouTube are blocked. Behind the Great Firewall, the CCP has the Chinese people trapped in a parallel reality where they are fed a steady stream of propaganda tightly controlled by Xi's authoritarian regime.
The CCP has turned the internet, designed as a tool of freedom, into the ultimate tool of control. And as it has grown more powerful, the Party has only expanded its ambition to maintain total control— physically, economically, politically, culturally, and intellectually. In fact, despite spending historic amounts on a massive military buildup, the CCP still spends more on internal security than it does on its military..."
Read Chairman Moolenaar's op-ed HERE.
Chairman Moolenaar Introduces PRC Risk Transparency Act and Trade Crime Crackdown Bill
Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) and House Financial Services Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions Chairman Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) today introduced the PRC Risk Transparency Act to ensure transparency into the material and systemic risk posed by U.S. investment in and reliance on China.
The PRC Risk Transparency Act will require public companies with meaningful exposure to China to disclose what percentage of their revenue, profit, capital investment, and supply chain is tied to the PRC. It will also require these companies to disclose their relationships with the Chinese Communist Party and with companies identified by the U.S. government as national security threats or human rights violators.
The Chairman also introduced the bipartisan Protecting American Industry and Labor from International Trade Crimes Act, alongside Congresswoman Ashley Hinson (R-IA) and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL).
Companies based in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) frequently commit crimes violating U.S. trade laws, including fraud, duty evasion, and transshipment, which benefit the PRC’s non-market economy and undermine U.S. companies and workers. Countless Americans have lost their jobs due to this criminal activity. Despite the large volume of trade crime-related cases, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has under-resourced its prosecution of these crimes.
This legislation aims to combat these crimes by directing the DOJ to establish a new structure dedicated to prosecuting international trade crimes. This will enhance U.S. capabilities for detecting, investigating, and prosecuting trade fraud, duty evasion, transshipment, and other trade-related crimes.
Select Committee Critical Mineral Policy Working Group Holds Meeting
On Tuesday, the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party's Critical Minerals Policy Working Group, led by Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA) and Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL), held its third meeting to examine the intersection of forced labor and sustainability in the mining of critical minerals. The roundtable explored policies aimed at reducing dependence on entities involved in forced labor violations around the world and highlighted opportunities for the U.S. and its allies to collaborate on addressing forced labor issues.
Members heard from experts including Mr. Peter Mattis, President, The Jamestown Foundation, Ms. Emily De La Bruyere, Senior Fellow, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies & co-founder of Horizon Advisory, and Dr. Jennifer Hinton, Group Manager ESG at Jervois.
Watch highlights from the meeting HERE.
Select Committee Fentanyl Policy Working Group Holds Meeting
On Wednesday, the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party's Fentanyl Policy Working Group, led by Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) and Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), held its third meeting to discuss how the United States can counteract People's Republic of China (PRC) money laundering and illicit finance, which facilitates the flow of fentanyl and fentanyl precursors to the United States.
Members heard from experts including Mr. Don Im, Former Assistant Special Agent in Charge with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Operations Division, Mr. John Cassara, Former Central Intelligence Agency officer and Special Agent with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and Mr. Alex Zerden, Founder, Capitol Peak Strategies.
Watch highlights from the meeting HERE.