[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 192 (Tuesday, November 2, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H6120-H6123]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2030
                  CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS WITH CHINA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2021, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Roy) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak a little bit about the 
current state of affairs with respect to our relationship with China 
and our Nation's response to it. I do so at a time when I am yet again 
sitting in an empty House Chamber, as I often am when I am speaking 
here because we don't really have debate here on the floor of the 
House, even when it is on important topics.
  We had votes today, for example, on 12 of what we call suspension 
bills. Tomorrow, we are likely to have votes on another, I don't know, 
five or six suspension bills while we wait with bated breath as to 
whether or not our colleagues on the other side of the aisle will 
produce the ever-waited-for legislation to further cripple our economy, 
spiral us into massive amounts of debt, raise inflation, pay people not 
to work, disrupt the supply chain. We are all waiting around while my 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle are literally fighting over 
which horrible bill they can unleash upon the American people.
  It is really quite extraordinary if you think about it. The people's 
House, we are sitting here debating, oh, well, are we going to have a 
$1\1/2\ trillion disastrous bill or a $3 trillion disastrous bill? Are 
we going to play games and cut that $3 trillion bill in half by cutting 
the time in half with the same disastrous policies? But that is 
precisely what my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are doing.
  Meanwhile, China is preparing to kick our rear ends. We are all 
sitting here playing tiddlywinks, fumbling around, talking about 
climate change and diversity quotas and chief diversity officers, and 
China is actually preparing to kick our rear ends.

[[Page H6121]]

  Recently, as many of my colleagues know, China tested a nuclear-
capable hypersonic glide vehicle, carried on a rocket, that flew low-
orbit space, circling the globe before speeding toward its target, only 
missing by about 24 miles, a test that was reported to have ``stunned'' 
the United States military.
  Well, that is concerning both because of the capabilities of the 
Chinese and the fact that our U.S. military was stunned. Both of those 
two things are concerning.
  Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Milley, interrupting no doubt a 
particularly enthralling session of diversity, equity, and inclusion 
over at the Department of Defense at the Pentagon, bolted out from that 
really important session and said in an interview that the Chinese 
military was expanding rapidly, and the recent missile test is close to 
a Sputnik moment.
  Indeed, this test comes after recent revelations that China has 
constructed and is making significant progress in developing at least 
250 new missile silos at as many as three locations across China, 
fueling a rapid nuclear buildup.
  In the wake of Biden's disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, China is 
increasingly willing to increase hostilities toward Taiwan. Just last 
week, Taiwan's President said the threat from China is growing every 
day. She said: ``When authoritarian regimes demonstrate expansionist 
tendencies, democratic countries should come together to stand against 
them. Taiwan is on the front lines.'' This is a nation of 23 million 
people opposed to communism.
  Where is President Biden? Where is this Congress? Where are my 
Democratic colleagues? Wrestling around with their $2 or $3 trillion 
spendathons but not doing anything to help us figure out how to send a 
signal to the world that we are going to stand alongside Taiwan and, 
more importantly, that we are going to be strong for America against a 
rising Chinese military.
  Biden recently said the United States' commitment to Taiwan was 
``rock solid,'' but China is calling his bluff. And why shouldn't they 
after the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan?
  By the way, it is thanks to Taiwan that the world was alerted to the 
coronavirus. On December 31, Taiwan's CDC reported warnings of the 
virus' human-to-human transmission to the World Health Organization in 
an email. This is back at the beginning of the pandemic.
  January 3 of that year, CDC Director Robert Redfield sent an email to 
the director of the Chinese CDC, formally offering to send U.S. experts 
to China.
  January 5, CDC Director Redfield sent another email to the Chinese 
CDC director, formally offering to send U.S. experts.
  The WHO even helped China cover the threat.
  On January 14, the World Health Organization tweeted: ``Preliminary 
investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear 
evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus.''
  February 24, Nancy Pelosi encouraged individuals to come to San 
Francisco's Chinatown.
  We can go on and on, but China got busy continuing their coverup, 
even kicking out journalists in 2020. And now what do we know? We now 
know that there was gain-of-function research going on; America was 
funding it. And now we see precisely what was going on in Wuhan, what 
was going on in China, and America's involvement with it.
  The fact of the matter is, China is serious, and we are not.
  Let's talk about coal for a minute. China's not taking part in the 
climate hysterics currently taking place in Glasgow and is not 
undercutting its own supply of reliable energy like we are. Why might 
that be? Because China knows they need reliable power to kick our rear 
ends while we sit around fumbling around with a President of the United 
States taking cold baths in Scotland.
  According to Time, China is planning to build 43 new coal plants 
while we are rapidly decommissioning coal plants here at home--not 
advancing clean-burning natural gas, not moving nuclear power. No, no, 
no, we like to live out in unicorn land where we are going to have 
nothing but wind and solar powering up our entire grid. That has not 
been working out so well for us.

  All so we can go down this fiction that we are going to drive down 
CO2 by allowing the Chinese to do whatever the hell they 
want to do while we undermine our own national security, our own energy 
policy, and drive people into energy poverty.
  The Chinese are using that coal to produce the manufactured goods we 
consume in the United States, including 80 percent of our solar panels.
  By the way, the rare earth materials we just gave up in Afghanistan 
by abandoning Bagram means we can't even compete on that stage even if 
you want to live in unicorn land where my colleagues on the other side 
of the aisle do, where you can have all your power come from solar and 
wind in the year 2021.
  Literally, my colleagues are in a dispute and a fight about how crazy 
green can the infrastructure bill they want to advance or the 
reconciliation package they advance be.
  Meanwhile, China leads the world in emissions, but they got 43 coal-
fired plants tuned up. But what do all these geniuses over in Scotland 
do? Well, China has promised they won't build coal-fired plants in 
other parts of the world.
  You literally can't make up how stupid a leadership of a country 
could possibly be than what we currently have in this country.
  Let me see if I can come up with every possible way to weaken our 
country, every possible way to make this country exposed on the world 
stage. I don't think I can come up with a better plan than what the 
current administration and my colleagues on the other side of the aisle 
and this body are doing.
  I think it would be a great contest. What could they do that is worse 
than driving us into energy poverty, taking away our ability to compete 
on the worldwide stage, developing clean-burning natural gas, exporting 
that, instead of literally having the President of the United States 
currently begging OPEC to open up more oil and more energy supplies?
  I am not even sure how you can put into words how unbelievably 
pathetic it is for the United States of America to be on the world 
stage begging for energy supplies when we sit on a bed of fossil fuels 
that we can use to power this world. We have all the technology in the 
world to develop nuclear power, yet we are not doing it.
  Meanwhile, China is importing 800,000 barrels of Iranian crude per 
day. Well, isn't that great?
  We have already talked about that the President is hanging out over 
in Scotland taking cold water baths, mumbling unintelligibly about 
antitrust and animals--I couldn't even understand the speech today--
while congressional Democrats are in a death fight over their trillions 
of dollars in spending.
  Most troubling of all, our Department of Defense is in a race, but it 
is not in a race to beat China; it is not in a race to beat Iran or to 
stand next to Israel or make sure we have the strongest fighting force 
in the world. No, no, the brilliance of the brass over at the Pentagon 
and the Democratic leadership in the White House and in this body and 
in the Senate, it is in a race to train our soldiers the finer points 
of critical race theory and climate ideology. I mean, you really can't 
even make this stuff up.
  It has been 64 days since President Biden's disastrous withdrawal 
from Afghanistan, and there still has been zero accountability for the 
President, Secretary Austin, NSA Advisor Jake Sullivan, and General 
Milley.
  Do we ever talk in this body? How many times do we come down here and 
emote about whatever horror has gone on in the world? We do it all the 
time. Have we talked about the drone strike that killed 10 people, 
including 7 children, something that would largely qualify as a war 
crime? Where are my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, coming 
down here and beating their chests about the horrors of war crimes? Oh, 
I remember what they were saying when President Bush was in office in 
the wake of 9/11. I remember all the protests. Where are the protests 
for this dead family?
  Is this the robust, over-the-horizon counterterrorism strategy that 
they

[[Page H6122]]

like to hawk and talk about so much that the American people are 
supposed to trust?
  There is an unknown number of American citizens--I can read reports 
of over 100, 200, 400--still stranded in Afghanistan. Thirteen marines 
were killed, as we know.
  Madam Speaker, $85 billion worth of U.S. taxpayer-funded defense 
assets, the Taliban have some number of those--access to a biometric 
database of our Afghan allies, control of the over $800 million United 
States Embassy in Kabul. Bagram Airfield, here, go ahead, take it.
  Now President Biden plans to send an additional $144 million to 
Afghanistan. For what?
  But it is not only just abandoning Afghanistan; it is empowering the 
Taliban.
  Now our other adversaries: Hamas praised the Taliban for causing the 
American downfall in Afghanistan and said: ``We congratulate the Muslim 
Afghan people for the defeat of the American occupation on all Afghan 
lands, and we congratulate the Taliban movement and its brave 
leadership.''
  China capitalized on it, saying ``a lesson that Taiwan needs to 
learn.''
  Where are my colleagues on the other side of the aisle? Do they care?
  Iran is set to hold a series of war drills with Russia and China. All 
of this is happening right now.
  Again, my Democratic colleagues are talking about socialism and race 
division and gender equality. They don't even like the word 
``equality'' anymore. It has to be ``equity.''
  President Biden is appeasing Iran and walking away from Israel. Biden 
refuses to stand up to Iran, attempting to rejoin the failed Iran 
nuclear deal.
  On October 8, the Biden administration lifted sanctions on two 
Iranian entities involved in military missile programs. Over the last 3 
months, a report showed that China imported nearly 800,000 barrels of 
Iranian crude, like I mentioned before. And now we are refusing to 
stand by Israel, our closest ally in the Middle East.

  The Biden administration wants to reopen the United States Consulate 
General in Jerusalem to provide separate diplomatic outreach to the 
Palestinians, directly undermining Jerusalem as Israel's eternal 
capital. Rejoining the Israel-hating United Nations Human Rights 
Council, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle don't care, and 
funneling millions of dollars into UNRWA that continues to undermine 
the very existence of Israel.
  Now Congress, in its infinite wisdom--both sides of the aisle, by the 
way, my colleagues on my side of the aisle, two-thirds of whom are 
guilty of this as well--is saying we need to not only give the Pentagon 
their NDAA, National Defense Authorization Act, their authorization, we 
ought to give them another $25 billion of authorization.
  We are not going to get anything out of Milley. We are not going to 
get anything out of Austin. We are not going to get the brass down here 
and say what in the world happened in Afghanistan, or can you explain 
what you are doing with all of your chief diversity officers and 
climate education? No, no, we are just going to throw them a whole 
bunch more money.
  Again, to my Republican colleagues and to my constituents and to all 
Americans: This isn't done yet. Make sure your Senators and your 
Members of Congress know precisely how you feel about authorizing a 
massive defense authorization that gives more money to the Department 
of Defense with no accountability for Afghanistan and that drafts our 
daughters.

                              {time}  2045

  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, in the infinite wisdom of your leaders in 
Congress and in this administration, the plan is to have our 18-year-
old girls--including my daughter, who is 10--have to go down and go 
sign up for Selective Service.
  Most Americans I talk to don't want that. They sure as heck don't 
want that buried in a whatever-thousand-page bill of $800 billion of 
defense spending.
  But respectfully, where are my colleagues on this side of the aisle 
on this? Two-thirds of this group voted for this bill because, Oh, we 
can't not support the Pentagon.
  Well, why can't we not support the Pentagon when the Pentagon is not 
actually running a military designed to blow things up and kill people 
the way it needs to, in a world where China wants to do us harm, Iran 
wants to do us harm, Iran wants to do Israel harm, and we are going to 
focus on adding women to the draft without so much as a debate on this 
floor or in the Senate? We are going to include gun-grabbing, red flag 
laws to take guns away from our servicemen and women, causing them 
usually to go hide it, not go seek mental health, not go get the help 
they might need.
  We are going to promote a radical Green New Deal agenda, including a 
sense of Congress that DOD should select electric or zero-emission 
models when purchasing new, noncombat vehicles; requiring the Secretary 
of Defense to submit to Congress their plan to reduce greenhouse gas 
emissions; praising the Intergovernmental Planet on Climate Change; 
creating a pilot program on the use of sustainable aviation fuel.
  But they are promoting a woke agenda in the Department of Defense. 
Requiring the Department of Defense to hire and train gender advisors, 
including creating an Office of Countering Extremism, which would have 
the power to expel military members who engage in ``extremist 
activities or members of an extremist organization,'' codifying 
diversity, equity, and inclusion training requirements, subsidizing 
plan B for servicemembers. And now, the Defense Climate Adaptation 
Plan. You can't even make this stuff up.
  China is sending missiles around the globe and we are responding with 
a Defense Climate Adaptation Plan. In what universe do the leaders of 
the greatest country in the history of the world do this? This new 
climate change plan ordered by President Joe Biden, released this last 
week would affect every level of command.
  ``Troops will be educated to improve their `climate literacy', 
according to the report. The topic should be taught to all during 
professional development training and at advanced courses.
  ``In order to properly respond, we need to have the knowledge, the 
tools and the ability to make climate-informed decisions at all 
echelons.''
  We continue to fund in this NDAA, that my colleagues so readily 
supported, funding for a Department of Defense that engages in critical 
race theory training for servicemembers.
  Last month, the Navy released a recommended reading list--I am sorry, 
this is last spring--to facilitate the growth and development of 
sailors. One of the books on the list is ``How to Be an Antiracist'', 
Kendi's bestseller advocating critical race theory. Separately, the 
Navy's Second Fleet created a book club for sailors and recommended 
reading ``White Fragility,'' a book that White people are inherently 
racist.
  If you would like to take a perusal of the Department of Defense 
website, you can find the Chief Diversity Officer, Senior Advisor for 
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the Director for the Office for 
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, the Director for Disability Equal 
Opportunity Policy and Compliance, the Director of the Department of 
Defense Diversity and Inclusion, the commandant of the Department of 
Equity--I don't know even know what the acronym stands for.
  In this so-called plan: Climate change is an existential threat to 
our Nation's security. We must act swiftly and boldly to take on this 
challenge and prepare for damage that cannot be avoided.
  The Department of Defense intends to champion climate considerations 
inside and beyond the Department. That, at the Department of Defense.
  The fact of the matter is, while China, Iran, perhaps the 5,000 
terrorists that were released that we had housed in Afghanistan, 
dozens, hundreds of terrorist groups across the world, they know full 
well that this country is not remotely serious right now about 
defending ourselves, defending our allies, standing alongside Israel, 
standing alongside Taiwan, pushing back on China, ensuring our 
positioning in the Middle East is strong. Or, for example, securing the 
southern border of the United States, where we increasingly find 
individuals from state sponsors of terror from China coming into our 
southern border. It happens much more regularly than people understand 
or are comfortable with.

[[Page H6123]]

  But no response from here. The response to the border, as we know, is 
to encourage more traffic, allow asylum to be abused, stop building the 
fence. There are parts of the fence sitting in a field rusting in 
Texas. We are paying contractors not to build the fence. But paying 
people not to do things is what my colleagues on the other side of the 
aisle are particularly good at.
  Let's borrow lots of money and print lots of money to pay people not 
to work.
  Let's borrow lots of money, print lots of money to pay people not to 
build a fence.
  Can I get into the not-doing-things business? Maybe my colleagues 
will be glad to have me not do Congress. Can I get paid to not do 
Congress, since we are in the not-doing-things business? It is 
absolutely absurd what we are doing on a daily basis endangering this 
country.
  Secretary Mayorkas, President Biden, utterly refusing to enforce our 
laws of a border, failing to faithfully execute the laws, refusing to 
use Title 42, refusing to use the Migrant Protection Protocols.
  Dead bodies keep piling up in South Texas. I have talked about it 
here before, again, to an empty Chamber. Steak dinners are much more 
important than the migrants who are dying in South Texas.

  We talked about that, right? We have a body trailer that a sheriff 
had to haul in to put the bodies in the body trailer. Does anybody 
care? Does anybody care about the rape trees? Does anybody care about 
the stash houses where little girls get raped? Does anybody care about 
the cartels making tons of money--moving people, by the way, into our 
country who want to hurt us.
  Rather than exporting the rule of law and building a strong 
relationship with Mexico and building a strong relationship with 
Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras--the rest of the Western Hemisphere--
to kick China's butt, we are retreating. We are importing lawlessness, 
importing people who aren't always wanting to do us good. And we are 
endangering our country in the process.
  We are shutting down power plants. China is building power plants. 
Our President is literally sitting with a bunch of leaders who flew 40 
some-odd private jets to hang out and preach about climate change, and 
they are not going to dent climate change. We got out of the Paris 
Agreement, and we outperformed the Paris Agreement. How? By burning 
clean, natural gas, exporting it and working to try to use technology 
and innovation around the world to have clean, abundant energy that 
empowers human flourishing.
  There are billions around the planet right now that would die to be 
sitting in a room like this with air conditioning or heating and 
lighting. They are burning dung, wood, paper--whatever they can get. 
And we have all these holier-than-thou's running around preaching to 
people, taking cold water baths, seeking to truly decimate human life, 
undo human flourishing--all in the name of bowing down to the altar of 
a secular worship of a planet that they are actually harming with their 
absurdity. And in the process, endangering us through our national 
security.
  While China builds coal-fired plants, while China builds missiles, we 
conduct classes on critical race theory and on climate change. That is 
what we are doing to our country.
  As we look ahead next week, this body will not be meeting, and we 
will be celebrating Veterans Day. And every single one of us will, no 
doubt, go to an event, try to visit with veterans, thanking them for 
their service. But I have got to be honest with you. What do I tell 
those veterans when they come to me and say, Were the last 20 years 
worth it?
  I would tell them it was worth it because they fought, and they stood 
up to defend this country to keep terrorists from attacking us on this 
soil. But they are asking a reasonable question when the President of 
the United States abandons Americans, abandons assets, empowers our 
enemy, empowers China, leaves our border open, destroys our economy, 
undermines our ability to produce clean burning energy, leaves a future 
for our children weaker against the world without the ability to have 
the kind of flourishing and prosperity that you deserve as Americans.
  I don't know what the result is going to be in Virginia tonight, but 
I know one thing: there are a lot of American people awakening to the 
absolute disaster that is being inflicted on this country by a radical 
leftist regime, whether it is in this body, in the Senate, in this 
administration, or in the Capitol building designed by Jefferson in 
Richmond, Virginia. Or in the halls of the school board in Loudoun 
County, sitting on their hands, allowing another little girl to get 
sexually assaulted because they wouldn't actually address the fact that 
a girl had been assaulted and they knew it and they did nothing about 
it.
  And then the Democratic candidate in Virginia says parents have no 
place on the school board. But guess what? The American people think 
they do, and they are right. The American people know we should have 
parents on the school boards, parents in the classrooms impacting what 
their kids are learning. And they don't want to turn it over to leftist 
radicals who want to remake our country, teach their kids that up is 
down and down is up. But that is what is happening.
  The American people are waking up around this country. They are 
awakening in Virginia. They are awakening in Texas. They are awakening 
where they are kicking out people from their school boards. And they 
are awakening to an administration that wants to destroy our ability to 
compete and beat China.
  We are not going to do that. We are going to beat China. We are going 
to stand with Israel. We are going to have clean burning energy. We are 
going to be able to power our homes. We are going to be able to teach 
our kids what they ought to learn. We are going to stand up if there 
are men and women. We are going to stand up for the greatness of this 
country. We are going to provide the opportunity for them, not by 
lecturing them, not by mandating to them, not by telling them they have 
got to go get a vaccine, not by shutting down businesses, not by 
walking away, but by boldly carrying forward the America that we know 
through the consent of the governed doing that which we can do as 
Americans, without begging for permission from a government that wants 
to weaken our country rather than advancing.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________