Republicans unveil legislation pinning China as top national security threat

Leading Republican lawmakers on Tuesday introduced legislation that formally declares China as the U.S.’ primary economic and national security threat.

The China Task Force Act, authored by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and co-sponsored by House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Michael McCaul, combines 137 legislative recommendations that were included in the China Task Force report released last month.

“Today marks another milestone in our efforts to hold China accountable — the introduction of the China Task Force Act will help us implement the recommendations of the report, which will help make our country safer and more self-sufficient,” Mr. McCarthy, California Republican, said in a statement.

“With the China Task Force Act, there will be an opportunity to go on the record to support realistic and meaningful solutions. Democrats should finally join us in holding the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] accountable — our country, and the world, can no longer afford inaction.”

Mr. McCaul, Texas Republican and chairman of the China Task Force, applauded the legislation’s release and said if passed, it “will help guide our foreign policy regarding the CCP for years to come and we should begin to enact it today.”

“The malign behavior of the CCP poses a generational threat that demands urgent action,” he said in a statement. “We can no longer stand back as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ramps up their military aggression, weaponizes the supply chain, and brazenly attacks the democratic values that underpin American society and global prosperity.”

In a report last month, the China Task Force, which is made up of Republican House members after Democratic members refused to join the committee that was intended to be bipartisan, called for increases to the defense budget, funding for modernization of all three legs of the nuclear triad as well as the development of ground-launched cruise and ballistic missiles, and establishing and carrying out an Indo-Pacific initiative to deter China’s aggression in the region.

The report concluded that the U.S.’ existing policy toward China has “often turned a blind eye to the CCP’s human rights violations, economic malfeasance, expansionist aggression, empty promises, as well as the CCP’s deep commitment to a hostile Communist ideology that drives this malign behavior.”