[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 55 (Wednesday, March 24, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1779-S1781]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 CHINA

  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I wanted to come down to the Senate 
floor for a couple reasons, but first I want to talk a little bit about 
what happened in Alaska last weekend--actually, a really important 
meeting between the United States and China, our senior diplomats, 
their senior diplomats. It took place in Anchorage, and let's just say 
the meeting was as frosty as the Alaska air.
  It was a tough meeting. The Chinese came out, kind of took a little 
advantage of being extra verbose in their opening statements, going 
against the 2-minute, agreed-upon time limit.
  It was a bit of a tongue-lashing, I think, of the U.S. team, our 
Secretary of State, Tony Blinken. I think our team pushed back 
appropriately--the National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan; Kurt 
Campbell, who also works at the National Security Council. But this was 
the first face-to-face meeting between the United States and Chinese 
diplomats with the Biden administration.
  What we saw was a very confident China, a very aggressive China that 
showed up in Alaska. For example, they were talking about ``Chinese-
style democracy.'' We also know that as a dictatorship.
  Earth to the Chinese Communist Party: There is no democracy in China. 
You run an authoritarian regime, so don't try to fool anybody. It is a 
dictatorship, not a democracy.
  But the bigger issue is this: Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist 
Party clearly believe that it is rising, that its rise for this century 
is unstoppable, and that the United States--and the West but 
particularly the United States, our country--is declining and there is 
nothing we can do to stop this. They say this in private. They say it 
in public. And they believe it. They are confident to the point of 
being cocky, as we saw in Alaska, to the point of calling their 
dictatorship a democracy, which, of course, it isn't.
  Now, my view--and I think it is the view of every Senator here; I 
certainly hope it is; I think it is--is that it is never a good idea to 
bet against the United States. Every major power in the world that has 
done so has lost that bet. That is a fact, but we clearly have work to 
do. We have a lot of work to do as it relates to this challenge.
  I have been coming to the Senate floor for the last 6 years talking 
about this issue, talking about this challenge, talking about some of 
the things that we need to do to address the biggest U.S. strategic 
challenge for this century. It is the rise of China.
  Now we have a new administration in power, and it was clear from the 
Alaska meeting that the Chinese Communist Party plans to aggressively 
challenge the Biden administration.
  Now, I have a lot of disagreements already with the Biden 
administration, especially the way in which they are treating my State. 
I have been speaking on the Senat floor--eight Executive orders focused 
on Alaska, shutting down our economy, killing jobs. And I will fight 
them hard on this. But, on China, I believe it is imperative that we 
all work together, not as Democrats and Republicans but as Americans, 
as we have done when other major powers have threatened the United 
States.

  The Communist Party of China clearly sees one of our major weaknesses 
as our political divisions. They write about it. It is in all the 
intel. They talk about it. Look, we are a democracy. We are 
transparent, unlike them. Our political divisions are on full display. 
You see them tonight. By the

[[Page S1780]]

way, we have had political divisions since the founding of the 
Republic.
  China doesn't share their political divisions with the world, but 
they have them, no doubt about it. But here is a fact. Here is a fact, 
and we all need to know this. Every American needs to know this. Xi 
Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party's worst nightmare is seeing a 
determined, long-term, bipartisan, strong U.S. strategy to deal with 
the rise of China, to deal with the rise of China for what they are: 
our No. 1 geostrategic challenge for this century. That is why we need 
to work together on this issue. It is something I have been calling for 
for a long time. And here is the good news: It is something that is 
starting to happen. It is something that is starting to happen.
  Now, I had a good opportunity to meet with Secretary Blinken, to meet 
with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and his top China national 
security official, Kurt Campbell, when they were in Alaska. I also was 
able to get a good debrief from Secretary Austin about his visits in 
Asia, particularly in India.
  The Secretary of State and the National Security Advisor talk about 
dealing with China from what they call positions or situations of 
strength--situations of strength. They actually took that term from 
former Secretary of State Dean Acheson when he was doing something that 
they are currently trying to do now: putting together a coalition, a 
long-term strategy, in 1947, 1948, 1949 to deal with the Soviet Union, 
and they did it with Democrats and Republicans. NATO, the strategy of 
containment--these were all things that came together in this body.
  So I want to talk very briefly about some of these positions of 
strength that the administration is trying to put together as it 
relates to China, and I think it is in our interest to help them.
  First of all, I think it was important and, of course, as an Alaska 
Senator, I was glad that meeting took place in Anchorage, but it was 
also a symbol. One of the things that the Chinese Communist Party 
frequently states--Xi Jinping frequently states it--is that Asia should 
be for Asians. The subtext of that is, we are trying to kick the United 
States out of Asia.
  Well, here is more news for the Chinese, for the Communist Party of 
China: We are an Asian nation. We have been an Asian nation for 
centuries. My hometown of Anchorage, where this meeting took place, is 
closer to Tokyo than it is to this city, Washington, DC. The Aleutian 
Island chain goes to the other side of the international dateline. We 
are an Asian nation. We are not leaving. We have been there 200 years; 
we will be there 200, 300, 500 more.
  So that is No. 1, and I am glad they held the meeting in Alaska for 
that reason, on American soil, and they chose to do that purposely. But 
let me talk about a couple of other positions of strength that I think 
it is incumbent upon us to try to help this administration with, help 
our country with. Some are going to be up to the Senate and the House. 
A lot more are going to be up to the President and his team. Where we 
can influence it, we should.
  As I mentioned, politically being unified on issues that relate to 
China is exactly what the Chinese Communist Party fears the most, and 
it is starting to happen. Legislation to outcompete China 
economically--critical, critical. The more that we can do that, the 
more that we can show we are united, the more important what we do here 
is going to matter in the long-term competition with regard to China.
  Let me give another one. Allies. Allies. The United States is an 
ally-rich nation. China is an ally-poor country. They have very few 
allies: maybe North Korea; Russia maybe, maybe not. China doesn't 
really have allies; they have customers.
  We have a network, and it is one of our most important strategic 
advantages. We need to build upon that network of allies, deepen it, 
expand it. And I will give the administration a lot of credit for 
setting this up in an important way for their first meeting, the 
leaders of the quad.
  The quad is the United States, Japan, Australia, and India, started 
by President George W. Bush, taken to another level by President Trump, 
and taken to a really high level by President Biden, the leader level. 
It was a really smart move. The quad can help anchor our alliances in 
the region in a critical way. Three of the four biggest economies in 
the world are part of the quad. Some of the best militaries in the 
world are part of the quad. So to have that meeting, even though it was 
virtual, with the leaders--the President, Prime Ministers--of the quad 
was smart and something I think they should be commended on. Then to 
have the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense go to Korea, 
go to Japan; continue on, the Secretary of Defense, to India--also very 
smart.
  The Chinese know this is a huge weakness of theirs, and it is a huge 
strength of ours. As Senators, the more that we can do to encourage 
this on our own, go to these countries, reinforce the importance of 
these alliances--it is clearly a position of strength that the 
administration is off to a good start with.
  Let me give another one, a position of strength. Our military. Our 
military. This is going to be pretty simple. If we see dramatic cuts to 
our military--and right now the Biden administration is debating this. 
There is a real fight going on internally: Where is the budget going to 
be? We can't see cuts.
  The second term of the Obama-Biden administration cut defense 
spending by 25 percent. They gutted readiness. The Chinese and the 
Russians were applauding that whole period. We have worked hard to 
build that up under the Trump administration and Republican Senate. 
They need to keep it going.
  And here is going to be a test. Last year in the NDAA, we put in the 
Defense bill a bipartisan piece of legislation called the Pacific 
Deterrence Initiative. The admiral in charge of the INDOPACOM region 
testified in front of the Armed Services Committee very recently. His 
replacement testified yesterday. All of them said we need to fully fund 
the Pacific Deterrence Initiative--a bipartisan part of the Defense 
bill last year--and $4.6 billion is what they think we need to reorder 
the balance, particularly in the area of the Taiwan Strait. That is 
public.
  The administration is debating this right now. They need to fund it. 
This body will approve it. That is going to be a position of strength 
that is up to them, but people are watching. We are watching, our 
allies are watching, and, of course, the Chinese Communist Party is 
watching.
  Let me give one more, one more that I think is critical: taking 
advantage of America's resources, critical minerals: Yes, energy; yes, 
natural gas; yes, oil. Prior to the pandemic, we were the world's 
energy superpower, largest producer of oil in the world, largest 
producer of natural gas in the world, largest producer of renewables in 
the world.
  This is a good thing for our country. Our allies in the region know 
it; the Chinese know it. And again, there is a debate within the 
administration right now on energy.
  The President has recently told some of our great Union leaders he is 
``all in for natural gas.'' We should do that. That is the reason we 
reduced greenhouse gas emissions over the last 15 years, more than any 
other country--big country--in the world because of the revolution of 
natural gas. Our allies need that. They know it is a national security 
strength that we have.
  On the other hand, we have other elements in the administration that 
clearly want to unilaterally give away our energy comparative 
advantage, restrict production of oil and gas. It makes no sense.
  So energy, energy is another position of strength that we should be 
encouraging, and I certainly am encouraging the Biden administration to 
recognize it as something good for our economy, good for jobs and, yes, 
really good for our national security and really important in our 
competition with China. The Biden administration national security team 
knows this. I think they recognize it. But again, we will be watching. 
It is important.
  This is going to be an issue that we are going to be focused on here 
in the U.S. Senate, in my view, for the next 50 to 100 years, if we are 
doing it right. If we work together, if we work from positions of 
strength, as the Secretary of State and National Security Advisor have 
mentioned, are focused on, the way this is going to end is the way it 
ended with other major powers that

[[Page S1781]]

have challenged the United States. I am very confident of that, and I 
think most of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle are. We need to 
get working together on that.

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