House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said on Nov. 20 that if he becomes the speaker of the chamber, he will set up a committee with its sole focus on the Chinese communist regime.
“China is the No. 1 country when it comes to intellectual property theft,” McCarthy said in an interview with Fox News on Nov. 20. “All the nations combined, Chinese steals more than them.”
The Chinese regime’s ongoing theft of intellectual property, which has continued for more than two decades, costs the United States an estimated $200 billion to $600 billion a year, according to Michael Orlando, acting director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
McCarthy accused the Biden administration of failing to stand up to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
“We will put a stop to this and no longer allow the administration to sit back and let China do what they are doing to America,” he said.
“When I become speaker, I’m going to have a select committee on China.”
The House minority leader will likely become the chamber’s speaker after Republicans won a majority during the midterm elections. McCarthy was elected as the House Republicans’ leader last week, clearing the first step of gaining the speaker’s gavel.
But hurdles remain for winning the majority support from his colleagues. Several Republicans, including Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), had publicly said they wouldn’t back McCarthy, who needs 218 votes when the entire House casts ballots for speaker in January 2023. McCarthy on Nov. 20 urged House Republicans to “work as one” so they can move forward with the party’s agenda.
McCarthy said he is eyeing issues such as China-manufactured fentanyl flooding into U.S. borders, the technology and intellectual theft from Beijing, the Chinese police outposts in U.S. cities, and the origin of COVID-19.
“This is where the fentanyl from China comes that will kill 300 Americans today, the No. 1 killer of the next generation,” he said.
The Republican congressman vows to stop the Chinese police facilities on U.S. soil.
“We will stop these police stations in America,” McCarthy said.
The “overseas police service stations” have raised concerns among lawmakers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and European countries after a September report by the nongovernmental organization Safeguard Defenders revealed that the existence of such outposts is part of the CCP’s global, transnational repression.
Chinese police authorities have set up dozens of such stations across the world, including in New York, Toronto, London, Paris, and Dublin, according to a review by Safeguard Defenders of China’s state media reports.
The Chinese authorities claimed that the sites are for administrative purposes, such as helping the Chinese diaspora abroad to renew their driver’s licenses.
However, the Europe-based watchdog noted that the CCP’s “service stations” serve a “sinister goal,” including intimidating and surveilling overseas Chinese nationals and pressuring those wanted by the regime to return to China to face criminal charges.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said last week that Washington is aware of these offices in the United States.
“To me, it is outrageous to think that the Chinese police would attempt to set up shop—you know, in New York, let’s say—without proper coordination,” Wray told lawmakers on Nov. 17. “It violates sovereignty and circumvents standard judicial and law enforcement cooperation processes.
“I’m deeply concerned about this and I’m not going to just let it lie.”
