Over two decades since the People’s Republic of China joined the World Trade Organization, the country has grown into an economic superpower rivaling the United States. The Chinese Communist Party leadership harbors aggressive strategic ambitions of replacing the U.S. as the preeminent power on the world stage and creating an international order subservient to China’s interests. Through industrial espionage, forced technology transfers, and extensive intellectual property theft, China and its network of state-sponsored enterprises have been able to gain a crucial advantage in developing advanced technologies in a variety of industries.

Most concerning, China now controls the production of many essential resources in our supply chains. For example, China dominates the supply of strategic minerals, such as rare earth metals and alloys that are key components in military vehicles, including submarines, fighter jets, and sophisticated radar and missile guidance systems. The coronavirus pandemic revealed to many people the depth of our dependence on China for medicine and medical supplies such as PPE. Seventy percent of U.S. imports of acetaminophen and around half of U.S. penicillin imports come directly from China, and China is the major source of active pharmaceutical ingredients for thousands of drugs sold in the U.S.