Smith: Countering the Chinese Communist Party

When the American people voted to give House Republicans the majority, one of the reasons was because we promised that we would continue former President Trump’s strong policies that countered the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). For too many years, China has been unchecked in expanding its influence across the globe and threatening the U.S. economically and militarily. Among the first actions we took after being elected to the majority was to create a China Select Committee to put special attention and focus on how to counter this aggression.

During the week of September 9, House Republicans passed several important pieces of legislation to counter communist China. It was the latest in our fight to strengthen America’s edge against China and push back against the communist nation’s efforts to gain any advantage over the U.S. and our allies. While bold acts of espionage like the Chinese Spy Balloon incident made headlines, there are many more subtle pieces of China’s strategy to expand its influence and control over every nation in the world.

As Ways and Means chairman, I’ve led the fight to bring an end to a Biden-Harris administration policy that opened the door for Chinese billionaires and the CCP to take billions from hard-working American taxpayers. The End Chinese Dominance of Electric Vehicles in America Act, which originated in my Ways and Means Committee and advanced through the House, gets rid of the Biden-Harris administration’s policy and will also encourage more American mining, processing, and manufacturing of critical minerals and other electric vehicle battery components. The bottom line is that America’s working families should not be forced to subsidize a nation whose decades of unfair trade practices and government subsidies have led to lost jobs, shuttered factories, and hollowed out communities here at home.

Food security is national security. And like so many in Missouri, I have strong concerns about the threat posed by China buying up our farmland. The CCP has proven time and again that it will seek to leverage any ownership interest they have to weaken America. I was proud to help the House pass the Protecting American Agriculture from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024. The legislation will help prevent the CCP and other foreign adversaries from turning our farms into weapons to wreak havoc on a critical part of our supply chain. Protecting our domestic supply chains to increase U.S. food, energy, medical, and national security will continue to be a top priority for me.

For years, the CCP has used America’s classrooms as vehicles to spread propaganda and expand influence. It set up Confucius Institutes (CIs) at colleges under the guise of promoting Chinese language and culture. In reality, CIs were just another tool the CCP used to try and brainwash young people, influence academic institutions’ decisions, and steal intellectual property and trade secrets. To fight back against CIs, House Republicans passed legislation to restrict federal funding to American colleges and universities that have a relationship with a CI or an entity with ties to the program.

It's no secret that China has sought to gain an economic advantage over the U.S. by stealing intellectual property and trade secrets, a form of espionage that costs American taxpayers up to $500 billion annually. The Trump administration did a great job combating theft of intellectual property and trade secrets through its China Initiative, which led to the prosecution of dozens of cases and indictments of over 150 individuals and entities. But in 2022, the Biden-Harris administration caved to woke leftist activists and ended Trump’s China Initiative, a move that led to a major decline in new economic espionage cases. That’s why the House passed legislation to bring back Trump’s successful policy to help protect our critical infrastructure and crack down on trade theft, hacking, and economic espionage carried out by the CCP.

Time is of the essence when it comes to countering communist China. I hope the Senate will move quickly to pass the House’s tough-on-China legislation and get it to the president’s desk. In Washington, I will continue fighting to combat the economic and national security threat China poses to our great nation.

Jason Smith (R-MO) represents the eighth congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives.