[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 105 (Thursday, June 15, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2108-S2109]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 China

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, the threat that China poses is widely 
recognized. Recent events laid bare the Chinese Communist Party's 
interest in spying on Americans. The Chinese military is growing more 
aggressive in the Indo-Pacific, especially toward Taiwan. And China is 
aligning itself with other adversaries like Russia, whose war against 
Ukraine China has helped support.
  We need to make the right decisions now to ensure that the United 
States is able to counter China from a position of strength, which 
brings me to the majority leader's current China proposal. Last month, 
the Democrat leader launched an initiative Democrats are calling China 
Competition bill 2.0. While this proposal has some laudable goals, a 
lot of Republicans are rightly skeptical of this initiative. Leader 
Schumer's last China initiative massively ballooned in cost, and now it 
is being implemented by the Biden administration as a vehicle for 
advancing progressive policies.
  I am not alone in fearing the Democrats' latest initiative will turn 
out to be just more of the same. If Democrats are serious about 
competing with China, one thing they should be doing is making passage 
of a robust National Defense Authorization Act a priority.
  Unfortunately, the NDAA has not exactly been a priority for the 
Democrat leader over the past 2 years. In fact, last year, Senator 
Schumer refused to bring the bipartisan Senate Armed Services 
Committee-passed bill to the floor. This critical legislation was 
allowed to languish for months before a negotiated bill with the House 
and the Senate finally passed in December of last year.
  Our national security should not be an eleventh-hour concern.
  I am encouraged that the Senate markup of the NDAA is occurring next 
week and that the majority leader is inclined to bring it to the floor 
in July. And I hope that holds.
  China has made investment in its military a priority. Over the last 
10 years, China's defense budget has doubled. This year, it will 
increase by more than 7 percent for the second year in a row, not 
counting any additional defense funding that China hides. It comes as 
no surprise that China is outpacing our military in modern capabilities 
like hypersonic missiles and has amassed a larger Navy.
  Recent U.S. war games positing a U.S.-China conflict following an 
attack on Taiwan have had grim results, showing enormous military and 
economic costs on both sides. These war games also made clear that the 
United States would run through its inventory of munitions, especially 
for long-range strike, in a matter of weeks, blunting our ability to 
sustain a protracted conflict.
  The United States, along with our allies and partners, need to 
maintain a credible deterrence to ensure that the cost is prohibitively 
high and the odds of success are extremely slim for China to attack 
across the Taiwan Strait or further attempt to assert any absolute 
control within the so-called First Island Chain. To do that, we have 
work to do on boosting our military's resources and readiness. At the 
very least, that starts with taking up each year's Defense 
authorization and appropriations bills in a timely fashion.
  Besides building up our military, one of the best ways to ensure our 
competitiveness with China is to strengthen American industry so we 
continue to lead in the breakthroughs, innovations, and advanced 
technologies that will define the future. How we attempt to do that 
matters.
  The President and Democrats in Congress have shown their preference 
for heavy-handed and often costly industrial policy that bestows 
taxpayer-funded subsidies on certain select industries, and it would be 
wise to ask where this will put us in the next 5, 10, and 20 years. 
Will it stifle innovation in our most important engines of growth? What 
will be the result of government picking winners and losers? Will small 
businesses and new enterprises be able to compete with large, 
established, and government-subsidized firms?
  The way the Biden administration has so far been implementing its 
subsidy programs makes me suspect that we are well on our way to having 
government bureaucrats play an outsized role in our economy, with 
correspondingly negative effects.
  Look no further than the strings that the Commerce Department has 
attached to funding for semiconductor manufacturers. The Department is 
giving preference to companies using union workers and, in some cases, 
conditioning funding on companies offering employee benefits that align 
with the Biden administration's agenda. It is the opposite of creating 
a level playing field.
  America succeeds when innovators and entrepreneurs are empowered to 
do what they do best, and government steps out of the way. Government 
should be focused, not on heavy-handed regulation or picking winners 
and losers but on creating the conditions on which all businesses, 
large and small, can thrive.

  Republicans have shown how pro-growth policies like this lead to 
greater investment, more opportunities for workers, and a stronger 
economy for all. Take our 2017 tax reform legislation. The Tax Cuts and 
Jobs Act lowered tax rates for owners of small- and medium-sized 
businesses, farms and ranches, and made it easier for them to recover 
the cost of investing in their businesses, which, in turn, freed up 
cash for them to invest in their operations and their workers.
  It lowered our country's sky-high corporate tax rate to make American 
businesses more competitive in the global economy. And it brought our 
international tax system into the 21st century so that American 
businesses no longer operated at a disadvantage to their foreign 
counterparts.
  And it worked.
  In the wake of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, incomes grew, unemployment 
fell to a 50-year low, the income gap in this country narrowed, and the 
list goes on. Business investment increased, inversions--which is tax 
speak for companies moving their headquarters overseas--stopped. 
Companies created new jobs and invested in their employees, and they 
opened new opportunities for American workers by moving production and 
capital into the United States and bringing substantially more than a 
trillion dollars in offshore funds home.
  One major thing--one major thing--that we could do to help boost our 
economy and increase our competitiveness with China is to extend the 
expired provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to give certainty to 
American businesses and entrepreneurs, and in Democrats' case, commit 
to not repealing key Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provisions.
  In the defense space, we can enhance the certainty for businesses by 
authorizing more multiyear acquisition contracts for key munitions like 
those used by the B-1 bomber, something that would both enhance 
economic growth and strengthen our Nation's defense.
  We also need to resume a real and robust trade policy. For the last 
2\1/2\ years, the Biden administration has put trade on the back burner 
to the detriment of our economy and our place in the world. Trade opens 
new jobs and opportunities for American workers. It helps businesses 
and agriculture producers access new markets, which grows our economy, 
and it provides an opportunity to develop important strategic 
relationships, foster ties with our allies, and advance U.S. priorities 
abroad.
  Under the Biden administration, the United States has been 
essentially inactive--inactive--on trade, but the rest of the world has 
not. China, for one, is currently negotiating or implementing a number 
of new trade agreements, adding to its already large portfolio of 
trading partners. These agreements aren't just economically 
advantageous, they are allowing China to build sometimes predatory 
relationships that serve to expand its sphere of influence.
  One of the most important things we can do to ensure that our country 
remains competitive with China is to reengage on the trade front and 
get to work on trade deals that expand market access and strengthen our 
relationships with other countries, particularly those that neighbor 
China.
  There are a number of other steps we can take to boost our 
competitiveness with China, things like unleashing American energy 
production to increase our energy security and to boost

[[Page S2109]]

American industry, developing critical mineral resources here at home 
instead of relying on China for so much of our critical mineral supply, 
expanding our own security and technological partnerships so we have a 
more agile and resilient supply chain, and more.
  If the Democrat leader is serious about improving our competitiveness 
with China and not just funding progressive priorities, these are the 
kinds of things that he should focus on for his bill.
  There is no question in my mind that the United States can 
successfully compete with and deter aggression from China. But to do 
that, we have to make sure that we are doing the right things to build 
up our military and ensure that American industry can thrive. And I 
hope that as we move forward, we will make securing our competitiveness 
with China a priority and ensure that any China initiative does not 
simply become a vehicle for more spending on progressive fantasies.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lujan). The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.