Mitt Romney Questions Antony Blinken About Efforts To Respond To China Threats

4 months ago

At today's Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) questioned Secretary of State Antony Blinken about policies relating to China.

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Transcript

00:00 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:03 Mr. Secretary, it's good to see you and appreciate the extraordinary commitment that you have

00:07 made over the last years to continue to foster American interests around the world.

00:12 I'm sure we don't agree on all the topics, but your devotion to American interests is

00:19 noteworthy and certainly something that I applaud.

00:24 You know I'm going to want to talk about China.

00:25 China is a disappointment for those of us who followed the Second World War and then

00:29 followed the collapse of the Soviet Union.

00:31 We're hoping that China would align with us in some way and see more modernization and

00:36 liberalization and democracy.

00:39 Unfortunately it's taken a different turn.

00:40 Its ambition is to lead the world, dominate the world militarily, economically, geopolitically.

00:46 I just on a piece of paper while we were here, I just wrote down some of the tactics that

00:51 I see that they're employing in their grand strategy in no particular order.

00:57 Monopolizing key industries with TikTok, being able to gather information about Americans,

01:03 Confucius Institutes to be able to promote their policies in our campuses, inserting

01:08 themselves through cyber systems and our critical infrastructure, buying ports around the world

01:14 so that they can foster their naval commitments or naval ambition, putting in place graduate

01:21 students in our universities, particularly in STEM subjects to be able to steal technology,

01:26 the Thousand Scholars program to do the same, inserting themselves into leadership positions

01:32 and international organizations, purchasing farmland around our military installations,

01:39 selling drones, Chinese drones to our police forces, spy cranes in the seaport we heard

01:45 about more recently, monopolizing key raw materials around the world, stealing technology

01:51 from our companies, spreading dissension in the U.S. and through the West.

01:56 It's an extraordinary list and it goes on and on and on.

02:00 That is why the former chairman and I of this committee proposed and actually got signed

02:06 into law a commitment to put together a group of people, Republican, Democrat, inside government,

02:14 outside government, to develop a comprehensive strategy to deal with China's ambition.

02:21 Part of this legislation said that by last July, the administration would be required

02:27 to submit to Congress in a classified form and with an unclassified summary the results

02:33 of this strategic development.

02:37 Now I've been offered the chance to review in camera what has been prepared.

02:42 I've tried to schedule that and that has not been responded to by the department.

02:48 But does the State Department intend to submit to the law as signed by the President to actually

02:57 put in place and to submit to Congress the strategy in a classified form?

03:04 Senator, first of all, I agree wholeheartedly with the short litany of items that you listed

03:14 in terms of what China is doing to try to pursue.

03:17 It's military, economic, diplomatic preeminence or dominance in the world.

03:25 And across the board, we have worked in new and effective ways to deal with that, to push

03:32 back against that.

03:33 And I'd just say very quickly before coming to your question, two fundamental things have

03:37 changed in our approach to China that allows us to approach it from a position of strength.

03:42 One, what's happened here at home, the investments that we've made in ourselves with the leadership

03:47 of Congress, particularly when it comes to infrastructure, when it comes to the Chips

03:50 in Science Act, when it comes to the Inflation Reduction Act, in each of these ways, we've

03:56 put ourselves in a position to make sure that we are leading when it comes to the industries

04:00 of the future.

04:03 And what I see around the world is people taking note of those investments and wanting

04:07 to partner with us.

04:09 Second, we have aligned in ways that we have not before with key partners in Europe, in

04:14 Asia, and beyond in the approach to China.

04:18 And you see that now in convergence of the approach, the tools that we're using both

04:25 individually and collectively, whether it's investment screening mechanisms, whether it's

04:31 controls on outbound investment to make sure that it's not going to help industries in

04:35 China that could come back and hurt us, export controls that we're doing in a much more coordinated

04:41 way, working across the board to deal with some of the economic non-market practices

04:48 that China engages in that unfairly penalize not only our workers and companies, but workers

04:53 and companies around the world.

04:55 I can go on down the list, but we see that convergence in very powerful ways.

04:59 Now, on the strategy and advisory board, first, we applaud everything that you've done and

05:05 your leadership on this for many years.

05:09 We announced the public strategy back in the spring of '22, and you were very gracious

05:15 in actually being there when I put that out.

05:18 But yes, the NSC, I know - and this is what the White House has made available - the classified

05:23 strategy for foreign camera review.

05:26 I'm going to make sure if there's some problem in scheduling that, that that happens.

05:31 And I'll also go back to them about what more we can do.

05:35 I know we've provided classified briefings to members and to staff on the approach that's

05:40 in the strategy, but let me come back to you on making sure that you can see and other

05:47 members can see the full strategy in the classified setting.

05:50 SECRETARY KERRY: Well, the law that was passed called not just for a classified setting,

05:57 which is certainly appropriate, but also to submit to Congress in a public setting what

06:01 the summary of those strategic moves would be.

06:04 And as I went through that long list of Chinese steps, those are the kinds of things I'm looking

06:09 for.

06:10 I'm - to say, look, our strategy is invest and align and compete sounds great.

06:17 That may be an objective, but the tactical steps of what we're going to do country by

06:21 country, industry by industry, port by port, spyware by spyware, et cetera, that's the

06:32 kind of detail that really creates a comprehensive strategy that can be effective.

06:37 And I guess I'm concerned that as we go potentially from one administration to the next, whether

06:42 that's in one year or in five years, that we have a strategy that lasts.

06:49 Following the Second World War, George Kennan and others came together to develop a strategy

06:56 that was very successful in confronting the Soviet Union.

07:00 We're looking to do the same thing here, but we haven't seen anything of that nature yet.

07:06 And in the law, required that that be submitted to Congress in a public setting, but also

07:12 in a classified setting.

07:14 And I would ask that you honor that commitment made in law and provide that information both

07:20 to Congress and to those of us that would want to attend a classified setting.

07:25 Thank you.

07:26 And I'll come back to you on that.

07:28 Thank you.

07:29 Senator Merkley.

07:30 Chairman and thank you Mr. Secretary.

Mitt Romney Questions Antony Blinken About Efforts To Respond To China Threats

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