[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 120 (Thursday, July 13, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S2447]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 China

  Mr. President, on another matter, during this week's summit in 
Vilnius, NATO allies issued a wide-ranging joint statement on the 
challenges facing the alliance. Among other things, I was encouraged to 
see our allies united in a particularly frank new assessment of the 
Chinese threat. Quote:

       The People's Republic of China's stated ambition and 
     coercive policies challenge our interests, security, and 
     values. . . . The PRC's malicious hybrid and cyber operations 
     and its confrontational rhetoric and disinformation target 
     Allies and harm Alliance security.

  Some of us have even more stark concerns about the PRC. But even this 
consensus statement indicates a promising shift toward the realism the 
current moment simply demands.
  Of course, NATO allies have never just been concerned with the North 
Atlantic. Individual NATO allies fought alongside U.S. soldiers in 
Korea and deployed to other far-flung regions to help contest Soviet 
aggression. After 9/11, NATO invoked article V for the first time and 
came to America's defense. A number of NATO allies deployed to 
Afghanistan, and some stayed until the bitter end, long after certain 
American politicians had simply given up.
  NATO created a training mission in Iraq, and NATO allies remain 
focused on the threat radical terrorists still pose to our collective 
security.
  Russia's invasions of Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014 woke some 
allies and some Americans to the threat posed by great-power 
adversaries, but the dramatic escalation in Ukraine last year sounded 
an even larger alarm.
  NATO, as an alliance, stayed focused on the threat posed by great-
power adversaries--and not just on the European continent. As the UK 
Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee put it in a new 
report, ``China almost certainly maintains the largest state 
intelligence apparatus in the world--dwarfing the UK's Intelligence 
Community and presenting a challenge for our Agencies to cover.
  Europe's largest and most integrated economies are recognizing the 
dangers of getting in bed with authoritarian regimes. As Germany's 
Foreign Minister has observed candidly, ``We paid for every cubic metre 
of Russian gas twofold and threefold with our national security.''
  So I am hopeful our allies are resolved to avoid making similar 
mistakes in the future. They seem to increasingly understand the deep 
strategic links between our own continent and the Indo-Pacific. That is 
why the alliance invited key partners--Japan, South Korea, Australia, 
and New Zealand--to participate in the Vilnius summit. Now, effective 
deterrence, resilience, and defense means much more than strong words 
and diplomatic displays of unity; it means concrete plans backed by 
robust investments.
  Today, Germany's Government is releasing a followup to its new 
security strategy dedicated to what it calls ``systemic rivalry'' with 
China. The Foreign Minister describes the long-awaited plan as an 
effort to ``protect our own resilience, our own security, and reduce 
dependencies that threaten us.''
  It is encouraging to hear the Foreign Minister acknowledging that the 
PRC has become ``more repressive at home and more offensive abroad.'' 
However, the document clearly reflects an ongoing debate within the 
German Government about how to engage both economically and 
strategically with China. The United States and other allies will be 
watching how this debate unfolds and what practical steps Germany takes 
to limit the growing threats from Beijing.
  As Germany's major pledges to make significant new investments in 
defense suggest, Berlin really is at a turning point. I am hopeful that 
Germany's defense commitments will be realized, that promised funds 
will go under contract to repair its badly atrophied military, and that 
German businesses will diversify their investments away from 
increasingly risky bets in the PRC.
  The United States, for our part, needs no convincing that China poses 
a singular strategic threat. In fact, clear majorities of Americans 
support expanding our deterrence in the Indo-Pacific. But if we want to 
succeed at the big things like outcompeting China, we need to get our 
ducks in a row on our most basic governing responsibility: providing 
for the common defense.
  Hard power is essential--more so than any number of pet rocks 
politicians hold up as helpful to compete with China. Hard power is the 
currency of geopolitics.
  The National Defense Authorization Act--our annual must-pass 
opportunity to assert national security priorities--is finally before 
us. When it comes to actually delivering the robust funding our Armed 
Forces need, the Biden administration has left our work cut out for us. 
His defense budget was plainly insufficient to meet the growing 
security challenges we face.
  We need to invest in the cutting-edge capabilities that will make our 
adversaries think twice, and we need to rebuild the industrial base 
that keeps America's arsenal--and the arsenal of democracy, our allies' 
arsenals--stocked. There is no time to rest on our laurels.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Republican whip.