China is profiting at American taxpayers’ expense

OPINION:

On Tuesday, Rep. Ashley Hinson, Iowa Republican, tweeted: “We have to stop taxpayer dollars from going to Communist China. Every dime sent there is being used against us and to perpetuate their gross human rights abuses.”

The next morning, the Republican National Committee added some context, tweeting: “Joe Biden is not committed to confronting the Chinese Communist Party. If he was, he wouldn’t be sending taxpayer money to CCP-backed companies.”

Pretty much everyone agrees with those sentiments, whatever their origin or prompting. Preventing Chinese communists from receiving American taxpayer cash is an important, uncontroversial and straightforward first step in dealing with our adversary.

Why, then, do we keep doing it?

One small example: Last December, the White House bragged about a $200 million grant to the lithium battery company Microvast Holdings. Unfortunately, Microvast operates in China and was recently added to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s watchlist of Chinese companies that have failed to comply with American auditing requirements.

A slightly more recent and egregious example is the Silicon Valley Bank bailout. Thousands of Chinese nationals and companies — some or all affiliated with the CCP — banked and conducted their financing through Silicon Valley Bank. When people talk about ensuring depositors above and beyond the $250,000 limit, in the case of Silicon Valley Bank, that means shipping billions of dollars to Chinese nationals and companies in bed with the Chinese Communist Party.

So, if you’re in favor of the bailout of Silicon Valley Bank’s depositors as constructed by the Biden administration, you are in favor of sending cash to CCP-adjacent individuals and companies.

Communist China is also profiting at the expense of American taxpayers through the tax credits embedded in the Inflation Reduction Act. Whatever else you think about alternative sources of energy and tax credits associated with them, all Americans should be able to agree that paying the communist regime in China to ship us solar panels and wind turbines is a bad idea.

West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin tried his best to ensure that there were domestic content provisions associated with the electric vehicle and electric vehicle charger tax credits. We will soon see if the Treasury Department will find a way to evade those provisions.

With respect to tax credits for wind, solar, batteries, etc., the situation is more straightforward. While there is a very modest bonus for manufacturing those sorts of things in the United States, a sizable fraction of the value of the credits will wind up in China. That seems unsustainable.

It also seems like something the Republicans could try to fix when they bring their own energy bill — H.R. 1 — to the House floor next week. If the Republicans are serious, they will use this opportunity to track right along with Ms. Hinson and the RNC and correct the mistakes made in the Inflation Reduction Act. They can try to ensure that American taxpayer cash is not, in fact, sent to companies controlled by the slaving, genocidal communist regime in China.

Or they can proceed as if everything is fine and there is nothing to see here.