[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 24 (Monday, February 7, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S530-S531]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                                 CHINA

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, this year's Winter Olympics are 
officially underway on the home turf of the Chinese Communist Party. Of 
course, Americans are rooting hard for our outstanding Team USA 
athletes, but this year's setting has also trained spotlights worldwide 
on the abuse and repression the CCP inflicts on its own people and 
aspires to inflict on much of the world. Unfortunately, this has also 
occasioned some instances of jaw-dropping tone-deafness and gullibility 
from American voices.
  I noted on this floor several years ago that as China has modernized 
its economy, too many wealthy and powerful American actors have seemed 
willing to help whitewash the CCP's many abuses or at least turn a 
blind eye. Hollywood self-censoring our own American films to satisfy 
President Xi and his cronies is just one example.
  Well, last week, one American broadcaster seemed to uncritically 
amplify the CCP's propaganda goal when they included a member of the 
oppressed Uighur minority in the opening ceremonies.
  This broadcaster called the CCP's obvious propaganda stunt ``an in-
your-face response to those Western nations, including the U.S., who 
have called this Chinese treatment of that group `genocide.' '' 
President Xi couldn't have scripted it better.
  Also, last week, a faculty member at a Big Ten university went on TV 
and compared China's secret police to American police officers and 
China's tyranny to America's voting laws. Here was the quote:

       Who are we to criticize China's human rights record when we 
     have ongoing attacks by the agents of the State against 
     unarmed citizens, and we've got assaults on the voting rights 
     of people of color in various States in this country?

  Really? Beyond absurd.
  The truth is, the CCP has turned Xinjiang Province into a giant 
oppression factory, where they enslave, sterilize, and commit genocide 
against the Muslim minority.

[[Page S531]]

  The truth is, the CCP has systematically worn down human rights and 
democracy in Hong Kong and jailed Hongkongers for speaking up.
  The truth is, the CCP is an aggressive, irresponsible presence in the 
Pacific region and well beyond.
  America's national security and economic competition with the CCP is 
a defining challenge for our country--and not just us but for all our 
friends and partners around the world, anyone who values an 
international order built on freedom and self-determination instead of 
their opposites.
  Last year, the Senate took some bipartisan steps to strengthen 
America's hand in that competition. The bipartisan U.S. Innovation and 
Competition Act was not any Senator's or any committee's or either 
party's idea of a perfect bill, but this delicate compromise product 
made headway on issues from critical supply chains to counterespionage, 
to intellectual property. And the Senate passed the bill last June, and 
the House has done nothing for 8 months--nothing from House Democrats 
from last June until just last week.
  So a few days ago, instead of passing the Senate's careful 
compromise, House Democrats slapped together a partisan bill stuffed 
with poison pills and the kinds of things they tried to put in their 
reckless tax-and-spending spree that failed at the end of last year. 
They didn't even bother to try working with House Republicans. The 
whole exercise was completely unserious.
  House Democrats' version mentions the word ``climate'' nearly as many 
times as it mentions the word ``China.'' It pours billions into the 
U.N. Green Climate Fund so the United States can borrow money from 
China to give it to an international body, which can then give it to 
China.
  Their bill even goes out of its way to include provisions on--listen 
to this--marijuana banking.
  China has been steadily building up its military and economic might, 
and the Democrats' answer is to help Americans get high?
  Drug overdoses on fentanyl just became the leading cause of death for 
Americans aged 18 to 45 across our entire country. Much of this poison 
pours into our country from, of course, China. And Democrats' plan to 
combat this is some more marijuana on the side?
  Needless to say, this is not a winning strategy for a global 
competition between great powers.
  So here is the bottom line. The bipartisan Senate USICA bill was 
itself a delicate compromise product. Any Democrats hoping to yank the 
bill to the far left or insert poison pills are badly, badly mistaken.

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