Amid
high inflation
and the economic suffering of Americans here at home, President
Joe Biden
and some of his top Cabinet officials recently gathered in Egypt at COP27. It was a ritzy global gathering centered on fighting climate change.
In Biden’s opening remarks to the summit, the president touted his Inflation Reduction Act as the “biggest, most important climate bill in the history of our country.” The statement was telling: Americans were told its purpose was to reduce inflation, but in reality, it was a gaslighting Trojan horse meant to conceal the Biden administration’s real priority. It perfectly encapsulated how
climate change
and green energy have skewed this administration’s priorities. The law’s $369 billion handout to Democrat-aligned activists and groups will only continue to make everything more expensive for American families. And John Kerry, the climate czar, is driving America’s foreign policy to focus on climate change and diverting attention from the real threats posed by adversaries that do not share our interests — adversaries such as the Chinese Communist Party. This makes the United States poorer, weaker, and less safe. House Republicans must hold the Biden administration accountable and focus on what really matters to our families and workers. Let’s once again put America and its interests first in Washington!
Biden’s obsession to decarbonize America is guaranteed to enrich and empower the Chinese Communist Party. A sizable portion of the law’s handout will go toward solar energy despite this administration being well aware that Chinese manufacturers dominate 80% of the market for solar panels and that many of them have ties to forced labor in Xinjiang. As secretary of state, I issued a determination that the Chinese Communist Party was guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity, a determination that the Biden administration upheld. Congress followed up by passing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which bans the import of goods from Xinjiang or from entities outside the region that have links to forced labor programs. These actions served our interests by upholding our commitment to human life while weakening the Communist Party. Unfortunately, this administration has been led astray by green fantasies.
Biden signed UFLPA into law, but his administration has displayed mixed feelings about enforcing it. Top Biden officials have expressed dismay that prioritizing human life in Xinjiang would undermine their efforts on climate change, with Kerry even likening Biden’s climate diplomacy with Beijing to Reagan’s arms reduction talks with the Soviet Union. It is a foolish comparison: Reagan was looking to make the world safer, while Biden is enabling genocide in exchange for making energy less affordable and reliable for Americans. And it is ironic, given the Chinese are building coal-fired power plants at a ridiculous rate and only making the problem worse.
House Republicans must ensure enforcing UFLPA takes priority over Biden’s green agenda. Beyond UFLPA, House Republicans must push to ensure Taiwan’s defense. Taiwan is but the first target of Xi Jinping’s revisionist chain of aggression against many of his sovereign neighbors and the global commons, such as the South China Sea. The stakes couldn’t be higher. A Chinese invasion of Taiwan could also mean the People’s Republic of China would control or eliminate 90% of the world’s advanced semiconductor production. Congress recently passed the CHIPS Act to reduce America’s dependence on Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, an effort for which I strongly advocated, but the U.S. remains far from self-sufficient.
Additionally, Congress should deal with Biden’s chronic confusion regarding U.S. policy toward Taiwan by recognizing the island democracy as a free and sovereign country. We should be clear, though: The purpose of such legislation would be to establish deterrence, not drag the U.S. into a war over Taiwan. In fact, not giving Taiwan additional weapons and recognizing its legitimacy makes war more likely. Only strength can deter Xi from doing the unthinkable. We saw firsthand in Ukraine what weakness will bring.
Finally, House Republicans must look to issues closer to home. Make no mistake, the China challenge is not limited to Beijing, Taipei, or Xinjiang — it is in Des Moines, Manchester, Charleston, and Las Vegas. The Chinese Communist Party is actively working to take advantage of our openness and mold our politics for its own ends. In the Trump administration, we did important work confronting the Chinese Communists’ influence operations within our own borders. In Houston, we took down the largest spy ring in history by closing the Chinese Consulate. We led efforts to shut down Confucius Institutes, Communist Party propaganda factories, at universities across the nation. Our good work must not be the end of the story.
A recent report found that many top American universities continue to partner quietly with Chinese schools that work with the Chinese military. No U.S. laws currently prevent such compromising relationships. That needs to change — it is high time our universities stop helping our adversary build the weapons pointed at our service members. In the Biden administration’s first meeting with Chinese Communist officials, held in Alaska in 2021, Chinese diplomats insisted that China is now a peer of the U.S. By foolishly prioritizing climate change cooperation with China over confronting its gross human rights abuses, China’s aggression toward our friends and allies, and its espionage activities within America’s borders, the Biden administration has now delivered this peer status to Communist China.
Between now and 2024, House Republicans must correct this absurdly misguided approach and lead the U.S. toward a tougher, more competitive stance for the good of the country.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER’S CONFRONTING CHINA SERIES
Mike Pompeo served as the 70th secretary of state. He is a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and a former member of the House of Representatives.
