00:00questions and I would like to start with you Mr. Birch and get your ideas on
00:08something that we see on this committee and I see even more so I think on the
00:13Intelligence Committee and that is the tremendous amount of animosity towards
00:19Christians that there is around the world. Most Americans don't understand
00:23what a minority we are as Christians in other parts of the world and there's
00:29there's a lot of pushback against Christians and just discrimination and
00:34outright violence some of which we've seen recently in Syria. Your thoughts on
00:39that and how we can engage the church the Catholic Church more in the pushback on
00:47this prejudice against Christians. Thank you Mr. Chairman and thank you for your
00:53question. It's an honor again to be with you this morning and I understand from
00:57your staff you too are a practicing Catholic and so I'm grateful to be here
01:01with you. The question you ask is very important because the Holy See in the
01:06United States actually share a deep concern for the persecution of religious
01:11minorities and particularly Christians around the world. This is occurring as you
01:15point out not just in isolated places but in many regions most especially and
01:21acutely in the Middle East where since the 1970s the Christian population has
01:27decreased by 75% primarily through immigration but also through religious
01:33persecution. The Holy Father Pope Francis has referred to this as a form of
01:38genocide. This of course is not just limited to the Middle East there are parts
01:43of Africa certainly Latin America places like Nicaragua where the church is
01:48jailing and persecuting priests and bishops. The Holy See is a extremely
01:54important partner in addressing this. It is one of the chief areas that I believe we
01:58have real commonality. The Holy See of course has nunciatures and relationships
02:05with over 180 countries around the world and it has relationships that the United
02:09States relies upon to address this very question and should I be confirmed I look
02:14forward to working with the Holy See on this on addressing the issue that you
02:18that you just raised. Well I appreciate that and again like I say most Americans
02:24really don't have a good feel for how difficult it is for a Christian in a lot
02:28of parts of the world. Thank you for acknowledging my Catholic faith. The
02:33gentleman on your right acknowledged his LDS faith and about 26% of Idaho is LDS.
02:40Indeed I was till the last election I was the only non LDS member of our of our
02:45congressional delegation and I think probably the relationship between LDS
02:49Church and the Catholic Church is really demonstrative of the relationship
02:54that all religions have in America. There's there's no place in the world
02:57where there are more religions practiced than here in the United States of
03:01America and done so non-violently and side-by-side with great respect for
03:08each side. Indeed whenever we judge a country particularly we've had this
03:13experience with Syria right now that what we're looking for is religious
03:17tolerance that will tell you something and a lot about that country and how
03:23successful it's going to be in human rights democracy and everything else. So
03:27thank you for that and I hope you'll work at it. Mr. Judd right now I think again
03:33most people aren't fully aware of the fact of how aggressive the Chinese are as far
03:39as their infiltration of our southern neighbors and you're going to be dealing
03:45with one of the places where they're making great efforts in Chile and I
03:51wonder if you could give us your thoughts on that how you're going to deal with that.
03:56Thank you chairman I appreciate that question I look forward to taking the time to answer that question.
04:03fully I've never had the opportunity to meet we meet you but as a new Idahoan it's a
04:08it's a beautiful state on the people there are some of the nicest that I've
04:12ever encountered so it's great to be in the state that you are you're the leader
04:16of. Senator one of my biggest concerns is what we're currently seeing from China as
04:24it pertains to South America. China sees South America as a soft landing spot they
04:30recognize and they understand that the United States doesn't have the same type
04:34of infrastructure in South America as what we do in say Europe or the Indo-Pacific.
04:40They recognize that they can because of this they can try to exert their influence in South America.
04:50One thing that that I love about Chile is that they are one of the strongest
04:54democracies in that region they recognize and understand that it's
04:59important to strengthen their their citizens civil rights. President Boric
05:06should be commended for calling out his his partners in in the region for their
05:12civil rights abuses in Venezuela and Nicaragua. We can work with the Chilean
05:19people we can strengthen those ties with the Chilean government because we have an
05:23awful lot more to offer I'm Chile than what China does we have a lot more we
05:28have a lot better economic ties than what China China does we have more direct
05:33foreign foreign direct investment in Chile than what China does we partner
05:38with Chile in Antarctica we partner with Chile in astronomy and astrophysics we
05:43partner with Chile in in developing investment opportunities for US businesses
05:49and as we continue to strengthen those ties we will see the
05:52partnership with Chile and the United States continue to grow I look forward to
05:57if confirmed as President Trump's nominee to working with Chile to
06:04strengthen those relationships with the United States and the Chilean government.
06:08Well thanks much well said and I think those observations are good but what I find in
06:13dealing with these other countries is aggressive as China is they still want to
06:17deal with us they recognize us as being what we are democratic and and strong
06:26believer in human rights and countries appreciate that and know that our rule of
06:30law is what part of the glue that holds us together so Ms. McGraw I'm gonna turn you
06:36over to Senator Shaheen who is going to have some questions for you I'm sure in that
06:41reach
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