U.S. House panel holds hearing on policy toward China

Lawmakers are sounding off over China’s aggressive tactics in recent years

U.S. officials from the State Department, along with several other agencies testified on combatting Chinese Communist Party aggression.

The hearing on the grave threat that China poses to the United States, its national security—and the world took place before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“From using a spy balloon to survey all some of America’s most sensitive military sites to their theft of upwards of $600 billion of American IP every year – much of which goes into their military – to their continue military aggression and expansion in the Indo Pacific,” the panel’s chair, Representative Michael McCaul said about China.

“Now, CIA Director Burns has recently stated U.S. intelligence has reason to believe China is considering sending weapons – lethal weapons to Russia,” he said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to meet next week.

The hearing comes after the U.S. Department of Energy reportedly joined the FBI in concluding the pandemic most likely originated from a lab leak in Wuhan China.

In a statement, China called the finding a U.S. smear campaign.

But one of the witnesses, Daniel Kritenbrink, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs criticised the Communist nation’s lack of cooperation.

“On the issue of Covid, we have long stated that China needs to do a better job of being transparent,” Kritenbrink said.

House lawmakers are sounding off over China’s aggressive tactics in recent years – especially Beijing’s alleged cover-up of the origins of the Covid pandemic.

More hearings on the threat from the Chinese Communist Party are scheduled to take place on Capitol Hill.