[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 13 (Friday, January 22, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S99-S100]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 CHINA

  Mr. COTTON. Madam President, on Wednesday, just moments after Joe 
Biden took office, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs sanctioned 28 
members of the outgoing administration, including Secretary of State 
Mike Pompeo, National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien, and UN 
Ambassador Kelly Craft.
  According to Chinese State media, these Trump administration 
officials were guilty of ``crazy moves which gravely interfered in 
China's internal affairs.'' Those ``crazy moves'' include presumably 
condemning the Chinese Communist Party's genocidal campaign against 
religious minorities in Xinjiang Province or its atheistic crackdown on 
Chinese Christians. In addition to interfering, these officials 
allegedly offended the Chinese people and seriously disrupted U.S.-
China relations. I guess that refers to some, such as Secretary of 
Health and Human Services Alex Azar, who traveled to Taiwan.
  Under the new sanctions, these officials are now barred from entering 
China, but more important and more ominous, institutions associated 
with them are also restricted from doing business with China.
  Now, it is tempting to laugh off these sanctions, as I did last 
summer when China sanctioned me. You know you won't have a second 
honeymoon in Wuhan or you will have to vacation in a nongenocidal 
country.
  But these sanctions are no laughing matter. They are not bluster. 
They are another step in China's long-term campaign to coerce Americans 
at every level of government and business. They are a direct attack on 
the independence of U.S. policy toward China and an attempt to 
blackmail the Biden administration with personal financial ruin in the 
future if they dare to stand up to the Chinese Communist Party.
  Some may start to think about the potential damage to their future, 
and they may start to sweat a little bit. Now, you may say: Good. I am 
glad that former government officials can't cash in on their service 
and go to influence-peddling firms like WestExec or Albright 
Stonebridge and sell access to the Chinese.
  I might even agree with that point, but consider a few other 
hypotheticals. The Chinese State media singled out book publishers as 
just one example of who could pay the price. Many public officials like 
to write memoirs, and these memoirs often add a lot to our 
understanding of current events, but Chinese State media singled out 
book publishers as an example of companies that would be banned from 
China if they associated with sanctioned individuals.
  In fact, China has already used American books as pawns in the trade 
war with the United States. So will major publishing houses really risk 
losing access to the Chinese market for all their other titles to 
strike a book deal with, say, a former Biden Cabinet official who was 
tough on China and ended up getting sanctioned? It is unclear but, I 
would say, doubtful.
  Other public officials practice at big law firms. And I know that we 
all make jokes about lawyers, but it is an honorable profession. There 
is nothing wrong with practicing at a big law firm, and they may plan 
to return to their firms after the administration is over. A lot of 
those firms have clients with close ties to China. And even if a former 
public official has no client with any business in China, will those 
law firms really take back their old employees if it means potentially 
losing valuable clients who are afraid of angering the Chinese 
Communist Party? Again, I would say it is unclear but, perhaps, 
doubtful.
  Once you consider these hypotheticals and others that don't involve 
influence peddling or anything untoward, you can begin to see the 
insidious consequences of these new sanctions. Beijing wants to scare 
the Biden administration into doing its bidding, and they want to scare 
U.S. businesses into blacklisting any official who irritates the 
Chinese Communist Party.
  Therefore, I call on the Biden administration to treat these 
sanctions as a day-one assault on the independence of its foreign 
policy by denouncing this intimidation in the strongest possible terms.
  But as the Chinese Communist Party is determined to prove, actions 
speak louder than words, so I also call upon President Biden to act 
reciprocally by sanctioning Chinese officials who are responsible for 
this blackmail campaign against his administration.
  Those officials shouldn't be able to ferret away their fortunes in 
the U.S. banking system the way so many corrupt Chinese oligarchs do, 
nor should

[[Page S100]]

their princeling children get degrees from our top universities or 
internships at prestigious Washington think tanks.
  President Biden should also refuse to nominate for senior positions 
individuals who are professionally or financially entangled with China, 
who could be compromised by the mere threat of sanctions.
  Finally, President Biden should determine whether Chinese Ambassador 
Cui Tiankai was involved in these sanctions, and if so, he should be 
expelled immediately for this egregious effort to subvert American 
foreign policy.
  And that is just for the short term. America must also begin to 
disentangle our economy from China, to decouple our economies. The 
Chinese Communist Party sanctions pose a threat only because American 
society is so deeply compromised by Chinese influence.
  American corporations, the big banks, think tanks, universities, film 
studios, even our sports leagues--even LeBron James--are all addicted 
to Chinese cash. They are all part of a new China lobby that is deeply 
invested in the status quo and, thus, hostile to any efforts to 
redefine U.S.-China relations in America's interest.
  This lobby makes their money in China. They make their products in 
China. They have made their bed in China, and now they are all 
vulnerable to pressure from the Chinese Government.
  America hasn't been in such a bind since our earliest days, when our 
young Republic was encircled by hostile imperial powers.
  Even during the Cold War, America had few entanglements of the sort 
we face today. The United States had very little trade with the 
Russians. We competed in separate lanes, like runners in a race.
  The new Cold War with China isn't so orderly. Communist China is 
wealthier and has more people than did Soviet Russia, and our economies 
have become deeply entangled. These new sanctions are just the latest 
example of how that entanglement threatens our security and prosperity.
  Here is how the United States can beat China in this strategic 
competition. First, the United States should impose restrictions on 
inbound and outbound investment with China. Wall Street has financed 
China's industrial and technological development for more than four 
decades and has become compromised for the bargain. That has to end.
  Second, the United States should move supply chains for critical 
goods, such as semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, out of China and 
back to American soil. China, today, may be the so-called factory of 
the world, but it was corporate America, with its Army of bankers and 
lawyers and consultants, who built that factory. That has got to end as 
well.
  Third, the United States must restrict the flow of knowledge and 
advanced technology between our country and China. American colleges, 
universities, and research laboratories are the finest in the world, 
but they allow Chinese nationalists to participate, even in cutting-
edge research with military applications. This research has an alarming 
tendency to end up in China, in the weapons fielded by the People's 
Liberation Army against our own troops. That information pipeline needs 
to be shut off, and many of those Chinese nationalists need to go.
  None of these steps will be easy, but the Chinese Communist Party's 
punitive sanctions against Trump administration officials and his 
blackmail campaign against the Biden administration officials 
demonstrate that decoupling our economies is both necessary and urgent.
  The Communists in Beijing have lulled too many Americans into 
complacency and dependency over the course of many years. They now 
intend to blackmail even our government into inaction. Our intention 
must be different. The United States must break free of the Chinese 
Communist's suffocating grasp, fight back, and win.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma is recognized.
  Mr. INHOFE. Madam President, first of all, let me just compliment my 
friend from Arkansas on his great remarks. People are not aware of the 
threats we are facing in this country. I want to join him in 
encouraging the new administration to understand and address these 
threats

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