[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 31 (Wednesday, February 15, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S414-S415]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 China

  Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I come to the floor today to talk 
about the threat posed by China.
  On February 4, our Air Force shot down a Chinese spy balloon. They 
did it over the coast of South Carolina. The balloon had spied upon the 
United States for up to a week. One of the places that it monitored and 
hovered over was my home State of Wyoming.
  Now, Joe Biden did absolutely nothing until the balloon had already 
crossed thousands of miles of the United States. To me, this is another 
national failure from a President who already brought us surrender in 
Afghanistan.
  People in Montana could see the balloon from the ground. That is the 
way America found out about it. It wasn't from the administration. It 
wasn't from the military. It was from a reporter on the ground with a 
telephoto lens. The man took a picture from his driveway.
  I am not convinced that Joe Biden would have done anything if that 
photographer in Montana hadn't published those pictures online.
  It is hard to imagine any other President letting a spy balloon fly 
over our country for nearly a week. Imagine John F. Kennedy allowing a 
Soviet spy plane over the United States. To me, it is unimaginable. No 
President, Republican or Democrat, would tolerate this, until Joe 
Biden.
  On Thursday, the Senate received a classified briefing on the spy 
balloon. I am not alone when I say I was disturbed and disquieted about 
what we learned. To me, Joe Biden did too little, too late, and then he 
did what he always does. He bragged about it. He said he had done 
everything right. To quote him, he said:

       We did the right thing.

  No, Joe Biden did the weak thing, as usual. He had to be shamed into 
shooting down the balloon--way too late.
  On Thursday, Joe Biden defended himself again. He said the balloon 
was ``not a major breach''--``not a major breach.'' It reminds me when 
Joe Biden signaled he would let Vladimir Putin make a minor incursion 
into Ukraine. President Biden is defending the indefensible.
  Just days after the balloon incident, he gave his annual State of the 
Union address. We were there. There were a number of bizarre moments in 
the President's speech, and one of the most bizarre to me was when he 
talked about China.
  He said no world leader would want to be Xi Jinping--no world leader 
would want to be Xi Jinping. He actually yelled it several times.

[[Page S415]]

  What was he trying to say? Does he still think that China is not a 
threat?
  Communist China is our No. 1 geopolitical threat. They are our rival. 
They have the second largest economy in the world. They have over 2 
million active military personnel. They have the largest navy in the 
world, and China plans to build more than 100 new ships, 300 new 
missile silos, and hundreds of nuclear missiles by the end of this 
decade.
  China is working day and night to get stronger. China is working to 
challenge the United States as the world's superpower.
  And Joe Biden seems to be doing the opposite. He is making our own 
country weaker and poorer and less prepared.
  China isn't the one opening the border to the whole world to come in. 
China isn't the one spending themselves into bankruptcy. China isn't 
the one shutting down their energy production. It is Joe Biden who is 
doing those things--a President who is soft on China.
  Now, he has been soft on China his entire career. When he was in the 
Senate, he helped China join the World Trade Organization. He helped 
China pay low tariffs under Bill Clinton. This helped China flood our 
country with cheap, poorly made consumer goods.
  By the time Joe Biden was Vice President, the threat from China was 
obvious, but he was still soft on China.
  When he was Vice President, Joe Biden said ``The growth of China is 
overwhelmingly in our interest.'' That was Joe Biden as Vice President.
  He should tell that to the factory workers who lost their jobs all 
across America. He should tell that to the families who have buried 
their children because of Chinese fentanyl.
  When he was running for President, Joe Biden repeatedly downplayed 
any threat from China. He said of China, in his announcement to run for 
President, he said China is ``not bad, folks.''
  Now, he should tell that to the 1 million Uighurs who are living as 
slaves and forced to work in the west of China.
  As a candidate, Joe Biden said China is ``not competition for us.''
  Well, I have got news for Joe Biden. China's economy has grown 12-
fold in the last 20 years. China now has more missile launchers than we 
do. It is painfully obvious that China is trying to compete with us. 
Joe Biden is the only one who doesn't get it.
  On Friday, former Senator Max Baucus, who I served with, from 
Montana, revealed that China wanted Joe Biden to be President.
  Now, Senator Baucus was a Member of this body, and then he was tapped 
to be President Obama's Ambassador to China. So Senator Baucus knows a 
lot about China, knows a number of Chinese officials. And on Friday, he 
admitted Chinese officials told him that China wanted Joe Biden to be 
elected President.
  Of course they did. In recent weeks, we found out that Joe Biden kept 
classified information at his home and in his private office.
  So where was this private office? Well, the office was at something 
called the Penn Biden Center at the University of Pennsylvania. The 
university paid Joe Biden nearly $1 million to do virtually nothing. 
Joe Biden says he was a professor yet never taught a single class. And 
he left classified documents at the Penn Biden Center.
  Now, reportedly, these documents were related to Iran and Ukraine. I 
haven't seen the documents, but those are the reports.
  And what is the relationship with China and this center? Well, 
Chinese donors gave $61 million to the university between 2017 and 
2020.
  Both the House and the Senate need to investigate whether these 
donations were legal, and we need to know if Chinese money is 
influencing the Biden administration's policies.
  On Thursday, I came to the floor and spoke about how Joe Biden's 
energy policies are helping China. Later that day, we found out yet 
another connection between Joe Biden's energy policies and China. We 
found out that the White House and the Secretary of Energy met with an 
environmental group with ties to China.
  The group is, interestingly, called the Rocky Mountain Institute, and 
the group was paid by the Chinese Government to study green energy.
  Now Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm wants their advice too.
  Enough is enough. It is time to act with strength against China. The 
sanctions that the administration announced are just a slap on the 
wrist.
  The House passed a resolution condemning China for violating our 
airspace. The vote was unanimous. Every Republican voted for it and 
every Democrat voted for it. Why aren't we taking it up here in the 
Senate?
  There is a whole host of legislation we need to pass here in the 
Senate to stand up to China.
  I have introduced legislation to ban administration officials from 
going to work for China.
  The top lawyer today--the top lawyer today in our intelligence 
community used to work for China. Before that, he worked in the Obama 
White House. Revolving door--Democrat administration, China, Democrat 
administration.
  He worked for the Obama White House. He worked for Huawei--of course, 
we know Huawei is a telecommunications company controlled by the 
Chinese Government. Now he is one of the top lawyers on the payroll of 
Joe Biden.
  There is much more that needs to be done in relation to China. China 
is going to try to spy on us again. China is going to keep challenging 
us. It is time for us to stand up to the challenge.
  Now, what happened with this spy balloon can never be allowed to 
happen again. America cannot afford Joe Biden's policies of weakness.
  I yield the floor.

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