The U.S. is “waking up, but we’re waking up too slowly” to the growing threats posed by China, Rep. Mike Gallagher said this week, arguing that the Biden administration is failing to take the steps necessary to put America in a position to win its 21st-century showdown with the rising communist military and economic superpower.
In an interview with The Washington Times, Mr. Gallagher sketched out the House GOP’s plans to confront Beijing when the party takes control of the chamber in January.
The Wisconsin Republican and Marine Corps veteran is set to be chairman of the new House Select Committee on China, a panel that GOP leaders envision as a sweeping forum in which lawmakers can grapple with what critics say are China‘s militarization of the South China Sea, its theft of American intellectual property, its economic coercion of the developing world, and a host of other issues.
Throughout the past two decades under administrations of both parties, Mr. Gallagher said, Washington has failed to act with the urgency needed to deal with a defining international challenge. He also said the Biden administration‘s Pentagon still lacks an adequate plan to counter a theoretical Chinese attack on the island of Taiwan, one that Chinese President Xi Jinping pointedly refused to rule out.
But Mr. Gallagher says he is heartened to see that concern about Beijing appears to be bipartisan.
“I think we’re waking up, but we’re waking up too slowly to be sure,” Mr. Gallagher said. “What gives me hope is both parties are starting to say some of the right things on China. On the Republican side, I think we’re more forward-leaning on saying the biggest national security threat we face is the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), whereas the Democrats are torn between that and climate change and tend to favor the latter over the former.”
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“Where the divide is more pronounced has less to do with Democrats and Republicans and more to do with, let’s say, industry [and] Wall Street vs. those of us who come at this from a national security perspective,” he said. “You have a lot of major asset managers that continue to plow American money into China.”
Despite the tensions in the relationship, China remains the country’s third-largest trading partner behind only Canada and Mexico. Major U.S. corporations such as Apple, Boeing, Tesla and Starbucks still have a major presence in China.
One of the key challenges Mr. Gallagher’s committee will tackle is economic dependencies on China, including American supply chains. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed supply chain vulnerabilities because of disruptions in global commerce. Major sectors of the U.S. economy, including the medical and pharmaceutical industries have become dependent on Chinese suppliers.
More broadly, China has cultivated economic relationships through trade and its Belt and Road initiative. China has invested billions of dollars in more than 150 countries over the past decade as part of its program, allowing Beijing to foster economic partnerships with other nations while also putting many of those nations deeply in debt to contractors and the government.
There have been signs the initiative may be slowing, but Mr. Gallagher warned that Mr. Xi, who recently secured a third five-year term as head of the government and the ruling party, is likely to double down on Belt and Road in his bid to supplant the U.S. as the world’s strongest economic power.
“Even if we’re hoping or betting on the fact that at some point they run out of steam … they could still get more aggressive in the short term,” Mr. Gallagher said.
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The Taiwan question
For their part, Biden administration officials push back hard against the notion they’ve failed to act seriously enough on China. Mr. Biden’s Defense Department has dubbed China the “pacing challenge” of the 21st century from a military perspective, and the White House has spoken openly about how U.S.-China competition will define the next several decades.
But last month, Mr. Biden met face to face with Mr. Xi during the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia, in an attempt to tone down the harsh rhetoric that both sides feared was veering out of control. Mr. Biden emerged from that meeting trying to cool talk of a second Cold War, speaking of renewed diplomatic contacts and cooperation on some issues and downplaying the idea that conflict between the two countries is inevitable.
“I absolutely believe there need not be a new Cold War,” Mr. Biden said after the meeting. “We’re going to compete vigorously but I’m not looking for conflict. I’m looking to manage competition responsibly.”
A summary of the talks issued by Beijing described the highly anticipated meeting as “thoroughgoing, frank and constructive,” but added Mr. Xi took a firm line on China‘s sovereignty claims to Taiwan, calling it a “red line that cannot be crossed in the China-U.S. relationship.”
Mr. Biden has fueled confusion about whether the U.S. would come to Taiwan‘s direct military aid if China attacks the island. The president has said as much on multiple occasions, only for White House aides to later walk back the comments.
Under the Biden administration, the U.S. has adhered to the so-called “One China” policy, under which Washington has long acknowledged Beijing’s position that Taiwan is part of China, even though the U.S. maintains informal diplomatic relations and substantial defense ties with the island democracy — and does not technically recognize Chinese sovereignty over it.
As China takes a more aggressive stance toward Taiwan, Mr. Gallagher and other critics say the administration needs to do more to ramp up U.S. defensive assets in and around the island. War-game simulations carried out for the Pentagon over the years by private think tanks repeatedly show Beijing triumphing in a direct clash over Taiwan, with U.S. and allied forces too small and too far away in a crisis.
“I haven’t seen a war plan that I think makes sense right now,” he said. “I have serious concerns about our near-term deterrent posture over Taiwan, which reflects our lack of urgency in the Indo-Pacific more broadly.”
“I don’t think we have a denial posture” that could stop China from launching a military offensive, Mr. Gallagher continued. “We’re trying to deter by denial, which means put in place weapons and people sufficient to convince Xi Jinping he could not achieve reunification of Taiwan with the mainland if he tried. I don’t think we have a denial posture in place that’s up to that task right now.”
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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