House Republicans’ blueprint to counter China’s global influence includes hitting the country on its contribution to climate change, prioritizing U.S. development of nuclear energy, and ramping up the domestic production of critical minerals used in defense equipment and clean energy technologies.
The House Republicans’ China task force released a sweeping report on Wednesday arguing the United States must “act decisively” with its allies to combat China’s leadership’s actions, which lawmakers said are jeopardizing people’s safety and U.S. prosperity. The report argues that fighting China’s influence must be the “organizing principle” for policies in the U.S. and its allies.
The Chinese Communist Party “has been in a cold war with the United States for some time. We are just slowly waking up to it,” said Rep. Michael Waltz, a Florida Republican and a member of the task force.
“I think it is the most dangerous adversary we’ve ever faced in our history,” Waltz, a U.S. Army veteran and a former Bush administration Pentagon and White House adviser, told the Washington Examiner. “That’s mainly because of the size of their economy and how they are stealing their way to the top technologically.”
The task force, established in May by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and led by top Foreign Affairs Committee Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, points to major vulnerabilities within the U.S. supply chain, particularly the critical minerals that are the foundation of everything from defense equipment to cellphone batteries to renewable power.
Republican lawmakers have increasingly been looking for ways to scale up mining and production of critical minerals, which include lithium, graphite, and rare earth elements, on domestic lands. The task force report prioritizes a number of GOP-led bills to expand U.S. production, including legislation from Waltz and top Republicans on the Natural Resources Committee that would speed permitting for hard rock mines and boost research funding for minerals recycling and processing.
Waltz said he thinks the report puts additional momentum behind his bill, but he added it would have been better if the task force was bipartisan. Democrats reportedly pulled out of participating in the China task force after the pandemic politicized the issue.
Nonetheless, Waltz said he does see Democrats on the armed services and intelligence committees “equally alarmed” as Republicans about the risks posed by the U.S. lagging on critical minerals. Other Democratic lawmakers, however, have slammed Republicans’ critical minerals legislation as an effort to undermine environmental permitting requirements for the mining sector.
The mining industry welcomed the House China task force’s focus on critical minerals.
“Reducing our alarming overreliance on mineral imports and bringing critical mineral supply chains home from China must be a priority,” said Conor Bernstein, a spokesman for the National Mining Association, in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
“The urgency of the challenge — and its implications for the future of U.S. competitiveness across a range of key industries — should be of bipartisan concern and demands bipartisan solutions,” he added.
Beyond critical minerals, House Republicans are also aiming to counter global narratives that China is greening its economy.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a surprise announcement last week, pledged that China would shoot for carbon neutrality by 2060, a commitment environmentalists said would make a huge dent in global greenhouse gas emissions if implemented.
House Republicans, however, in their report, argue the U.S. should highlight China’s “rampant environmental destruction.” They recommend the Trump administration “issue a plan to respond to the [Chinese Communist Party’s] perpetuation of global climate change as the world’s largest carbon emitter by a massive margin.”
China is currently the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions, followed by the U.S.
Waltz said the Chinese government, as it is building out infrastructure in its own country and within the developing world through its Belt and Road initiative, is polluting and violating environmental and labor standards.
He also doesn’t buy China’s new climate pledge, chalking it up to “good marketing.”
“If you look at what they’re actually doing right now, it doesn’t add up,” Waltz said. He said that China is importing huge amounts of oil and natural gas and is continuing to build and burn coal.
Any strides China is making in clean energy technologies, Waltz added, is largely “just to dominate the technology at the expense of the United States.”
To push back on China, the House task force also calls for the U.S. to ensure it is energy secure, calling on Congress to pass a number of bills that would boost natural gas pipeline infrastructure and liquid natural gas terminals.
In particular, the report says Congress and the White House should prioritize developing nuclear energy, claiming it is a “national security imperative” and calling on President Trump to sign a memorandum to focus federal attention on nuclear power.
“Congress should strengthen the U.S.’ competitive position in global nuclear markets through the expanded export of nuclear technology,” the report recommends.
