Disinformation is a major topic we need to discuss. We need to share our experiences in dealing with china. A forum where we can review all aspects of the chinese presence in europe, globally, and how we deal with that. They plan to kick this off. We are looking for a date in the near future. Trying to do scheduling. I think we are resigned to the fact that this may have to be virtual. Step in person. Just given the pandemic requirements. The deputy secretary has agreed to participate in a number of conversations. Directors of all the Member States will gather and have this on their agenda. The german presidency. That is an opportunity for Member States to engage. At both member state experiences and overall approach. I hope we can kick this off. We can see this as a longterm project. So we can really Exchange Ideas and experiences. Thank you. I dont think anyone would disagree that this will be a long project. As you know, i and members of introducettee legislation to strengthen american competitiveness. I believe our efforts are complementary. Can you tell me what initial steps have been carried out . Thank you for your question. This is something that is very important. We thank you for this bill. We have extensive engagements in the region. We have helped governments build that capacity. That is part of the tools to use in addressing the prevalent issues. How can we ensure that countries have the right practices in place. To make sure they have a level Playing Field. Thank you. Engagementengthens in latin america. You briefly outline how the administration prioritizes this . Iq for the question. Dfd has been a wonderful tool and resource. Expanding that broader base in latin america and the caribbean. They have already invested and indged to have 4 million the western hemisphere alone. It is already invested in Central America. We are working strategically to make sure these are strategic. That they have purpose and they bring the right competitiveness and transparency to the region. We coordinate all of the messages throughout the western hemisphere. Finally, the executive branch is required to provide our regional partners with assistance on Cyber Security and cyber defense. Can you outline any additional efforts in that regard . We have two new initiatives. That was only planned for that region. We launched this for the first time in our region. Will provide for cybersecurity training. And shared practices. Making sure that our partners are aware of the issues and have the right tools to address them. Ourt is good to see that initiatives are mutually reinforcing. As you know, authoritarian nation such as china and russia are utilizing Emergent Technologies in ways to surveilled and repress foreign populations. These countries are now spreading their models for digital authoritarianism to other countries which may be attracted to these new modes of social control. What is the Administration Strategy to counter the spread of digital authoritarianism . Thank you for that question. As my colleague from the western hemisphere noted, this strategy is not limited to this. We have been executing this globally. To take things down. These are all well known to us. We have been shining a light on activities that would otherwise seem benign. These are massive collection platforms. New zealand discovered that their Prime Minister had been targeted by this. He has been leading the way on many initiatives. They bring all of these ideas into one place. I am happy to hear from him in the future. I was more focused on digital authoritarianism. Trying to control people and nations that seemed to the following chinas lead. I would love to hear from that. I think you had on a really important issue. Massiveg control of roots of people. That isa technology right in the wheelhouse of those authoritarian countries that want to do that. I think it is really important that we focus on that. Thank you for that line of questioning. I am told senator johnson is with us. Is that true . Apparently not. The next one on my list to senator gardner. Thank you very much for this. The witnesses for testifying today. We have been working with our colleagues on efforts to shape new policy toward the end of pacific. China is now the emerging global power. China now intimidates countries across the cloak. It has embarked on an initiative to seek submission and domination. Has used transfer practices. With the aim of dominating the global market. Wrote initiative cultivates political independence. Beijings military Modernization Program is the most Rapid Military buildup in history. Ever more important than that the u. S. Maintain leadership in the end of Pacific Region and beyond. We must be united on implementing a longterm strategy that will benefit national interest. And project American Values and respect for human rights and values and freedom. This includes countering chinas malign influence. The u. S. Must pursue a strategy that has Economic Security in the coming decade. Ensures the u. S. Government will speak with one voice to willure our allies that we continue to lead economically and technologically in the in the Pacific Region. We will shape the global landscape. Can you talk about how this administration has implemented coercion . Nter chinese and talk about how the free and open Indo Pacific Strategy can better be adopted by our allies. It is good to see you virtually. The great part about all of this is that much of the legislation comports quite well. Executing this is much easier if we do it in networks. In groups. India has come on very strong in this regard. The concept of the indo pacific has incorporated india into the larger solution. Getting the word out matters. I have been very encouraged by our colleagues in europe. We are doing this is a group effort. Not the u. S. By itself. It is the entire government doing it. We welcome legislation played it and all of the cooperation between the congress. Thank you. Taiwan and china are on different trajectories. Longstandinge expands taiwans links with the global community. What are the economic benefits . Can we see progress on that in the coming weeks . That is a very important point. The relationship with taiwan, our goal is to comply with the law. All of these things to make sure we allow taiwan the International Space. Cooperation between the administration and the hill on things like arms sales. To ensure the issue is resolved peacefully. , doing on time . Thats a good thank you. Thank you very much. I think all of our witnesses. This is an important hearing. China presents so many challenges. There are many other examples that are of great concern to us. Iny violated their agreement regards to hong kong. I have joined with senator rubio it clear thatmake there are consequences. They represent direct security threats. The list goes on and on. I want to use my time to followup in our own hemisphere. To talk about chinas influence in our own hemisphere. The United States should have a strategic advantage over china in our hemisphere. Ties. E historic we have a history. We are the preferred partner. We have seen some really disturbing trends. The belt and wrote initiative. Nations haveican entered into economic agreements with china. We look at the community of the latin american and caribbean. Into ave entered fiveyear cooperative agreement with china. We know that china wants to use its economic power to undermine our economic system. So they determine the rules of International Engagement rather than market economies such as the u. S. Bipartisanned in a effort. Advancing competitiveness and transparency. We have all joined together. My question is, what can we do . What are we doing now, recognizing that china has made unprecedented inroads in our own hemisphere to shore up the economic ties, and how can you work with congress to make it clear that this is an all u. S. Effort . That there is no division here and our commitment to have closer ties with the countries have been in our own hemisphere . Thank you for your question, senator. Some of them had to be returned. Going back to the question of can we trust what china delivers, the United States, we provided 20 billion globally for the covid effort and 140 million in w. H. O. , the western hemisphere. How do we help in the economic Recovery Efforts . The growth of the americas initiative, we want to help these countries because we expect in 2020 gdp decline of 9 due to the covid and ongoing issues. How do we help them recover in a way that is transparent and long lasting and sustainable . We bring in all the interagencies together and we are forging new relationships through government agreements to further discussions on how we develop the frameworks within these countries so we can have longlasting relationships and Economic Growth beyond the immediate needs of the covid pandemic. Other me make two suggestions that might help in this area. One is the u. S. Participation in the oas. Had legislation that would strengthen the parliamentary role to make it clear that this is an organization that we can to improveize americas influence in our own hemisphere. Sure youmbers, as im are aware. Our participation has made a much stronger relationship between europe and the United States on the basic plants of polls of our nation. I think we can do the same and i dont think it has been used as effectively as we need to. And the second point, i will get your response to both of them, is the caribbean nations. There is many caribbean nations which are relatively small and it does not take a lot of attention to make sure that we globaleir support on the community, within the united nations, and in our own hemisphere. We found we did not get the type of support we wanted from the caribbean states, so it does not take a lot of tension. China is giving them that attention and the United States is not, so i urge us to recognize that we can do a lot more with relatively small amount of funds in some of these small island states. Your response. As a have seen it Multilateral Institution that actually works now under the leadership of trujillo. We have engaged and revived the ability of the members to speak up against the antidemocratic forces in venezuela, cuba, and nicaragua. Another way we are trying to utilize oess to provide space for taiwan, our partner in the region. Last year, we had a humanitarian assistance conference for venezuela called at the oes, and we were able to get taiwan to come deliver remarks at the hall of the oes and announced a 500,000 donation to the venezuelan humanitarian effort. That is unprecedented, to have taiwan be there and that probably made our friends in beijing very unhappy but we are trying to provide that space for taiwan as well as other democratic actors in the region. Another area where we have provided that space is through the Interamerican Development bank. This is where china provides. 004 of the contributions. Yet last year, china tried to demand that when it hosted the meeting that juan guaidos representative would not be welcomed, and taiwans representative would not be welcomed, and taiwan is an observer. The unitedon, and states, pushed back on chinas attempt to try to create its own rules and regulations in an international body. It was rejected, and the meeting was not held there. It was held in could or instead. These are some examples where we can use the Multilateral Organization space to Work Together with our allies to speak out. In terms of the caribbean, secretary pompeo is in the caribbean today, on the fight right now on the flight right now. Recently held successful democratic elections. Our partnerships and longlasting relationships with the caribbean, last year, i joined secretary sullivan in inviting all the caribbean members to a conference to talk about how the countries can Work Together with the United States to combat disaster resiliency in the face of hurricanes and we continue to engage the Caribbean Security initiative and the 2020 partnership in many ways across the region and in addition to that, the caribbean is also home to four countries that have diplomatic relations with taiwan so we continue to reinforce those relationships and taiwan is closely monitoring and enhancing their relationships in those countries as well in recognition that beijing is trying to upset those countries. Thank you. Thank you. We will move to senator romney, who supposed to be with us virtually also. I am with you virtually. Thank you. I want to begin by expressing my appreciation to the members of this panel for the work that you are doing on our behalf. I think it is perhaps the most important work that is going on in our government because i think the issue of our decade and perhaps beyond that is going to be how to deal with the emergence of china as a great power. They would hope to become the greatest and only great power, so i salute your work. I want to underscore a few things. We know that chinas gdp will surpass our own by a lot, just given the size of their population. Stage, that at this their procurement is pretty close to equal hours, military procurement, so in the future, with a greater economy, they l be able to geopolitically, they are rising and we are not. They are lining up people to support them, people who in the past have not supported them and are now coming to their side. That is in part because they see where the power goes. Friends often go where they believe their interest is going to be. As china becomes stronger, we may find they are able to collect something which they never had before, which is friends. I think President Trump was right to confront china and push back against their trade practices. I think he made a mistake by not doing so in collaboration with our allies and be able to have much more clout. Secretary pompeo was right to have spoken so forcefully, to awaken our allies to the threat imposed by china and to encourage a collaboration with them. I would also note that many of us have very great concerns about the human rights abuses going on in china, the outrageous treatment of minorities, uighurs, people of religious faith, people of hong kong. It is simply extraordinary. We also see their activities in the South China Sea with great alarm. Its unlikely that they will change these practices in a very significant way until they feel pain. And the only pain that we are going to be able to exert other than words and people decrying them would be economic pain. So the question that i would ask with regards to our panel is are our allies and other nations that follow the rule of law, whether india, japan, south korea, the strongpublicschools. Org the combinee they poised to and develop a collaborative trade policy which will exert such pressure on china that they will be diverted from the course they are on and move towards importing with the International Order . Are we there, and if we are not there, what do we need to do to get there . Senator, thank you for that great question. It pretty much encapsulates my entire time in this job and a lot of success that we have seen in this regard and getting others to find their voice. I mentioned the europeans of. Ate hes not so successful they have begun to acknowledge the problem. As we all know, china uses its economic clout as a cudgel to force countries to be things that are not in its own interest. This inway many portray this Great Power Competition is the simple act of talking about it. Transparency. As we know the information environment inside the prc is clogged. Its one way. Those who speak out, like the doctor, who pointed out the problems with corona, are often times squelched. That is because the government fears transparency. They dont want to see what is happening in change on in the city. This is a values issue where they are using slave labor to produce things we appreciate in the west and those of us in the free world are smart enough to take action, economic action, to address this sort of behavior. You have linkages between economic interests in values and who we are and the United States has been very vocal about this, as you said, to connect those two. The result of that is you have got companies leaving china. When you arrest australian reporters or threatened to arrest them because of something that is happening in australia, you now have zero australian reporters in the prc. You can imagine businesses will feel the same thing with this new National Security law. Article 38 says if you say anything derogatory about the prc or the government, you are subject to arrest. All these things work against that juggernaut you describe, senator, of this inevitability of chinese domination of the global economy, and at the same time, we are seeing great work and cooperation on the economic side and japan. 2 billion to reassure out of taiwan. Tsmc, the worlds greatest chip manufacturers looking to reassure in arizona, creating american jobs. I dont think it is as inevitable as they would make it sound. I think the u. S. Has been able cooperation with partners in the east asia Pacific Region and elsewhere as everyone recognizes the threat. Thank you. Know my time is up. I want to underscore the importance of combining with these other nations on a collaborative basis to confront china. Thank you. I appreciate it. For those of us that are attending via the internet, i would appreciate if you put a clock in front of you for the five minutes. We have heavy attendance and everybody wants a shot at this. For respective federal members, i would appreciate if those of you who are not here with the clock in front of you, if you would have your staff or someone keeping track of that. All of us would greatly appreciate that. The senator was not with us digitally. Welcome. Always in person, mr. Chairman. Panelistsach of our for being here. We really appreciate your insights as you all and my colleagues have said so eloquently, china certainly represents a threat to the economically and militarily. Economic and government circumstances in the western balkans, does it make it particularly appealing for china . Can you talk about what we are doing . What is our strategy to address china . As you know, its always a pleasure for me. I do that. We have seen some great developments. As i mentioned in my remarks, as we discussed across the panel today, china poses a threat in that region as well, where they seek to divide these small westerns from their orientation, but we have, as we do with all of europe, been engaging to make them aware of the threat and the challenge, the problems with chinese debt onlomacy, and we focus reciprocity and resilience, and aware, as you are keenly we focus on helping all of those expand their western orientation. We have seen Great Success in northern macedonia, becoming, in spite of the virus this year, the 30th member of nato. Prosperity begins with security. Expanding the alliance has been a very positive step. By initiative was developed a dozen countries in the central and Eastern European region to provide alternatives in a northsouth direction for trade and infrastructure and we have stepped in to support the three cds, not as a member, but as an interested partner, and secretary pompeo outlined, as i mentioned, that the Development Finance corporation is offering 1 billion for opportunities throughout that region so we continue to engage with them and you have seen the Great Strides that were made between serbia and kosovo in their longterm thelem which has hindered whole region. By focusing on the economic side, through the great efforts of the white house and the special president ial envoy, bringing leaders together not to tackle the most difficult issues of recognition but focusing on things they can do to normalize economic relations between serbia, kosovo, and that has given us some new opportunities as well. Im sorry to interrupt, and perhaps this is not secretary stillwell would like to weigh in on this. Serbia has become a key partner for china and actually has opened an Innovation Center with huawei for digital transformation, so do we have a strategy for addressing serbia and the other countries interest in partnering with china on huawei and those investments that china might be making in that area . Senator, yes, we do. Theou look at the work with u. K. And helping them understand the downside of the National Security risks, go ahead. Strategys transparency, these decisions are made in a nontransparent way by incentives, bribes with the leadership of these countries to make decisions not necessarily an interest of their own people, so we focused heavily on making these sorts of transactions more transparent. What specifically has been our success in serbia . Have we been able to get them to help us with the transparency piece . It is a work in progress, senator. Ourmore we can do with relationship with serbia and help them understand that we are open to their interest in being more and more part of the west, they will come to see the same things other European Countries are realizing, who are the partners they can rely on, what our trusted vendors in terms of developing hightech proposalsture, the 5g , for instance, which set out higheters for dealing with tech. The European Union has developed their own security toolbox. Its something we need to let them come to that realization that there are options. As we talk about trust and reliance, what kind of challenge does it present for our partners likerope when we do things remove troops from germany without consulting with our partners before making that decision . Does that undermine our reliability with our partners, and what does that say about our ability to get cooperation when we are combating china . I spent some time at european command prior to taking over this job and we were then already focused on the challenges as outlined in the National Security strategy of Great Power Competition including china. The real message we sent to partners is evident, for instance, in the december 2019 nato leaders statement out of london, where we declared for the first time that nato should address opportunities and challenges of china stemming from the p. R. C. s growing influence. We do this all together. We have been addressing things like forced posture over time. I will leave that to my colleagues to get into the details of that, but i think we have got this and we are getting it right. Enhanceern partnerships forward presence, the things we did in response to russian threats, direct existential threats, we need to look at the broader range of threats like cyber and hybrid. China being very much a part of that as well, and that is what we are doing collaboratively. We have strengthened the alliance. Progress on the burden sharing and resources. Some of the steps we are taking on the forced posture are really positive developments to reflect these contemporary concerns that we have. You to followask up, but im not sure i got an answer to my question about germany. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, senator sheen. Are you with us . No, im told. Senator portman . Apparently not. Senator young. Mr. Chairman . And who is that . This is senator young. We can hear you loud and clear, senator. The floor is yours for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. The administration has that chinasrned Economic Engagement with the corruption ander lead to unsustainable debt traps as we have seen in other areas around the world. How have government officials, private sector leaders, and Civil Society groups in the region responded to those accusations . Thank you for your question, senator. As you have seen, china not only uses debt diplomacy and poor quality infrastructure, but we see their investments hurting the environment, violating local labor laws. They brought these issues to light in the region, raised it to government counterparts. Local partners, local ngos, local journalists. Thats where we see it, when we have the region speaking out for themselves about some of the concerns that china brings to the region. One example is in ecuador. The chinese funded that under the term. And it is000 cracks growing every day. It has killed workers and displaced people and put people in villages out of jobs. Because of its corrupt nature, it has put people in jail. People have seen in the region and throughout the world the dangers of what Chinese Investments can bring. And great prices terms, but the hidden costs are what people are understanding so i think countries and governments are more aware of these issues more than ever and taking a more cautious approach, doing more Due Diligence. Its governments that will decide whether or not to take such deals. More we have others speak out and see the ramifications of what Chinese Investment means beyond economics, to the environment, to labor laws, to society overall, that understanding and knowledge is growing. , that seems to be the key whether it is bilateral negotiations and diplomatic relations or when we work the imf and other Multilateral Institutions, to the extent we can bring transparency to a lot of these decisions made by governments that often times leads to positive results. Administration using other forms of foreign assistance and incentives to strengthen u. S. Partnerships and counter chinese influence in the region . Thank you for the question, senator. Its a powerful tool that we have to think more strategically about our engagement in the region and working with our partners. They announced they would work in partnership with taiwan to funding, financing from the covid recovery, and this was announced. Im sorry. I said in the region it was sort of vague. America, the caribbean countries. Are these instruments of diplomatic and developmental power being brought to bear in that region . My point is that taiwan and the United States are working together in latin america so they announced financing to for thesme loan support Central American region. Of Central AmericanBank Economic integration. Thats an example of where we are providing that funding into the region. There is 26 million loan they have provided to produce 500 telecom towers. This addresses our Strategic Interests as well as the 5g telecommunications interests where china is trying to take over and really control that sector and then working with others to make sure they are working with countries in the region to make sure they have the right tools to do the Due Diligence through programs like that. Lastis demonstrates your , the, how this region caribbean and latin america, the whole basin, is really instrumental in countering china. You have nine of chinas partners located in that caribbean basin region, and i am grateful for your efforts and those of your entire team to ensure that taiwan has the wherewithal to counter chinese nefarious activities so thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, i yelled back. Thank you, senator. You for this important hearing and thank you to our witnesses. China is, as we all recognize, the greatest Foreign Policy challenge the United States faces today and how we engage with china will shape the century, our place in the world, and our role. Theres is bipartisan recognition. We are better equipped to compete with china if we work closely with our allies and partners from around the world in particular who share not just our interests, but our values. Them for theirnd crafting of the bill. Senator. You are still with us. I will keep going. Commend thed to introduction of a bipartisan bill that recognizes the ofnificance, the centrality latin and south america which are not only closest to us geographically but integral to our role in the world and chinas efforts to undermine or replace our relationships in this region as well as in the indo pacific are concerning, even alarming. There are positives. We have all talked about the dfc. In every region, we want to see more of this powerful tool that can help advance transparency and american engagement. One of my real urns is ways in which the Trump Administration has enabled chinas growing influence by threatening and in some cases succeeding in abruptly withdrawing troops or withdrawing us from international organizations. Let me ask a few questions designed to get some clarity around that, if i might. Might,ry stillwell, if i to put a point on that, the Administration Reportedly weighed withdrawing troops from south korea, a move that garnered bipartisan concern on this committee and the hill. Can you assure they are no longer considering a withdrawal of troops and if any such changes were made, it would not happen with our allies and partners as well as with congress . Thank you, senator. These issues all require cooperation. So agreed. Consult, but there is no the state of that in department. Thank you. I respect and recognize that the administration is being forward leaning in engagement with taiwan. A great regional challenge and i was wondering, as some commentators have suggested, there is some consideration of ending strategic ambiguity and clarifying our commitment to taiwan . And if there were to be a public change in that position there would be consultation before that decision was taken . Senator, that is a very good question. It has been one that has been publicly discussed. I give a speech at the Heritage Foundation on clarifying the six assurances. The rationale behind that is to prevent and reverse p. R. C. s squeezing of taiwans International Space and get back into a position that looks like something we agreed to with the taiwan relations act and that clarification is important. This was not an indication of a change in strategy or policy. It was simply reversing what we have seen as far as ticking off taiwan partners as far as keeping taiwan from attending the world health assembly. The one place that figured out corona first and understood it best and where the people that could have helped out if they were allowed to participate. And any other multilateral activities taiwan is allowed to participate in meaningfully. We are working hard to clarify that. Thank you. If i might, you mentioned the dfc being on track to deploy 12 billion in financing to Central America and the caribbean. Tell me how state and usaid are coordinating. Opec was long a piece of development strategy. Dfc has a broader range of tools and resources and reach. If we were to use the dfc to advance our values and sims of transparency and high labor standards and environmental standards, there has to be internally coordination with the usaid. How do you see that proceeding . Do you see any role for the dfc and our presence in the region to directly to combat digital authoritarianism and strengthen Civil Society, as is urged in the Bipartisan Legislation referenced earlier by the Ranking Member . Thank you for the question, senator. In terms of usaid and state, we are in lockstep on our china strategy. Through an interagency effort, but also through usaid choice of framework, that looks at governance, that makes sure procurement and Civil Society are all involved in the transparency effort and to bring those issues to light when we hear about opec deals from china for any other country. We are making sure we are closely aligned and the programs we do on anticorruption and Civil Society strengthening go to build that space so that chinas malign influence does not overtake that space. We are closely aligned with usaid read one example is in the Illegal Fishing area. Usaid is working International Resource strengthening program on National Resource strengthening program. In terms of working on digital authoritarianism, there is no better example in the region then maduros regime and working in close concert with china and chinas cte long had a relationship with the maduro regime and providing them capacity which spies on Civil Society and opposition leaders and determines who gets what food allocation in that country. Right now, we are not engaging in dfc in venezuela, but in the future when we have a democratic transition in the country, we would love to bring dfc in and help rebuild. Thank you. Thank you senator. Senator cruz. Senator cruz thank you, welcome to each of you. Mr. Stillwell, a few months ago deputy secretary begin testified before this committee and we talked about reviewing the Obama Administrations 2015 guidelines for diplomatic relations with taiwan. Which prohibit our taiwanese partners from displaying their flags and insignia. As you know, i filed legislation to change those guidelines, but as ive emphasized, the state department does not need that legislation to pass to change the guidelines. The administration could make those changes right now. The deputy secretary said he was not familiar with the issue when he testified before this committee. As you know in written followup, he stated that changing the guidelines would be in tension with the taiwan relations act. That is a curious statutory interpretation. And an odd position for the state department to take. As far as i can see, there is nothing in the tra that requires these guidelines. Rather, it is a policy decision to be made by the administration. What in your judgment in the tra justifies preventing our taiwanese allies from displaying their sovereign symbols . Senator, thank you. We have been discussing this concept of strategic ambiguity with regard to taiwan and i mentioned earlier, this beach we gave it heritage that helps to clarify those things that need clarification, as you suggest right now with this particular issue, one of the issues that speaks to this is the decision to leave the question of sovereignty undecided ambiguous. We will not take a position on sovereignty. This is part of the backandforth between the mainland and taiwan. With the taiwan relations act and with the Administration Policy wants is for this to be resolved peacefully and through dialogue, not with coercion or use of force. The question of sovereignty was decided to be left undecided and to be worked out. Senator cruz are you testifying that the taiwan relations act mandates the 2015 guidelines . The guidelines follow from the taiwan relations act. They did not exist prior to 2015 and the reason they were enacted was because in 2015, the taiwanese raised their flag and the Chinese Government got mad and the Obama State Department decided to kiss up to china and change the rules and appease them. Prior to 2015, there were no guidelines. Prior to 2015, taiwanese military officials were allowed to wear military insignia. That did not magicallys change, did it . So, the broad sweep of the taiwan relations act did not change. It is the same. Was it in violation of that statute when taiwanese military officials were wearing military insignia prior to the 2015 guidelines . Senator, i will simply say that on the question of sovereignty entities are all related and these are all related, that leaving that decision between those two the interpretation is leave that decision undecided. But let me just this administration has gone very far in reversing all of those decisions that have been made in the past to clarify, to support. You saw the secretary of hhs attended. You have an undersecretary in the state department in taiwan right now. I believe what we are doing is definitely in alignment with your interests as well to support taiwan and make sure that they have the ability to resist coercion by the chinese. So i dont disagree that policy has improved under this administration. It is not surprising to me that these guidelines were issued under the Obama Administration and under the leadership of secretary of state john kerry. Their policy position was far weaker and entailed far more appeasement to the chinese communists than the Trump Administration has. These policy guidelines are utterly inappropriate in my view for a Trump Administration or for a department of state led by mike pompeo. They are not consistent with the stated policy positions of the principles. It is a matter of discretion. Your argument that the statute mandates that is not the good faith argument. And so i would urge state to revisit this issue. You have the ability to change these guidelines right now. It was the Obama Administration that made them up and it did so at the behest of the chinese communists and if you can make them up to make the chinese communists happy, you can repeal them to make the chinese communists unhappy. I get that the chinese communists would be unhappy. Ms. Chung, there is broad concern over chinas predatory investments in latin america, alongside separate, but related concerns about how china dominates important industries, including the critical mineral supply chain. Ive introduced legislation that would on shore the supply chain for such minerals. The concern is minimal. In latin america and beyond, china has sought to dominate the Global Supply of lithium. The control hath of the Global Production of lithium. Argentina, chile, and the lithium bolivia have 70 of the worlds lithium reserves and china has been pouring resources into the region. What steps are we taking to help these countries protect their Natural Resources and ensure that they dont fall victim to chinese predatory practices . Thank you for the question. As you state, the lithium triangle in south america is a critical area where they maintain imports to that area. We are talking to various governments about that. Investment screening measures before signing deals with any other country. These are steps that we are having active discussions with. We have a critical working group. Both of us are keenly aware of sensitivities of supply chain and working more with the industry themselves. We are building up these discussions, but this is of critical interest to us. Thank you. Senator murphy. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Thank you to all three for your service. It is hard to overestimate the value of the gift we have handed china through this administrations mismanagement of americas covid19 outbreak. First, it bolsters chinas argument that autocratic or semiautocratic forms of government compete with a set of population tools are more effective at meeting modern threats then democracy. When a democracy cant get this epidemic under control after half a year when an autocracy can get it under control in a matter of months, they believe that strengthens their argument. Second, our failure has given china this massive head start in the contest for Global Economic influence. Chinas gdp contracted by 6 in the First Quarter and expanded by 3 in the second quarter. Hours contracted by 3 in the First Quarter and 34 in the first second quarter. It is not just that autocratic governments were able to get this under control. They had a 2 contraction in the second quarter. It is not that democracies are unable to get covered under control, but our failure to do so is the worlds most notable and leading democracy, it strengthens chinas argument that countries should follow their model and has handcuffed our economy. Our Business Leaders cant even travel around the world because america is the sick child today. While china now steps into that vacuum. We have compounded that error by withdrawing from the who. In latin america, those countries are relying on china, not the United States in order to help them deal with covid19. China made a 2 billion commitment. News just earlier this month that state department detailees will be removed from who regional and field offices all over the world. One of chinas preeminent defense planners at a conference in 2018 hailed trumps America First strategy say and as the u. S. Retreats globally, china shows up. So, my question is this for the panel and i would love your thoughts you make contest the premise of my question how has the United Statess failure to control covid has strengthened chinas hand and how has our withdrawal from the who allowed for china to gain prominence on issues of Global Health . Senator, that is a fantastic question. I appreciate the chance to layout some of the thought process that went behind this. I think in large part there are a couple key failures here. One is the failure of china to control what started off as a simple Public Health problem. When they did control it in the town of wuhan, where we have a consulate, they did it by very inhumane and heavyhanded tactics. They welded people into their homes. They rounded them up if they were sick and pretty much isolated them against their will. They separated parents from specialneeds children and those children died from exposure because they were left. So that is a model, it is certainly a model for dealing with this that i dont think any american would tolerate. Secondly, we are the Third Largest country in the world. We had 22,000 people coming from china for at least three weeks after the chinese knew this was a problem. And we were the first to close our borders to china and then to others on the 31st of january 2 deal with this. Third, if you look at the numbers originally, we did not put our numbers out per capita. When you compared our numbers to belgium and germany and others, per capita we are better. Fourth, we are not an island. Countries who have done so well are able to cut themselves off, but they also cut themselves off from commerce, travel, tourism, and all the rest, and those countries now when the pacific are having a very hard time economically as the disease eventually will make its way into their countries. As you know, this whole problem begin with the chinese failure to deal with its World Health Organization requirements through the initial requirements to report these things. Secondly, their intrusion into the u. N. And the who had the who leadership telling the world that is ok. I can give you documentation as late as february that they were saying, dont overreact to this. The u. S. Contributes 400 million to 500 million a year to who. I appreciate your answer and the fact that youve got to hold the line here of the administration, but the failure to acknowledge that we have done grave damage to americas reputation in the world by not being able to control this virus in a way that plenty of other democracies were able to i think it speaks to a real blind spot and lets just remember it was the president of the United States who was the greatest cheerleader for chinas response to covid in january, february, march, and april. No one was standing up more vocally for chinas transparent and effective response. That made it hard for a lot of people to get tough on china when the leader of the free world was not. I hope we can have a little bit more of a nuanced discussion about our effects of the failure of covid. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you. Senator, are you with us . We will go to senator kaine. His senator kaine with us . Senator merkley, you are up. [indiscernible] oh, there you are, senator portman. Thank you very much. Senator portman, i guess you are here on seniority. I guess we will go to senator portman, then to you, senator merkley. Senator portman, you are up. Thank you. Can you hear me ok . I can hear you now. First of all, i appreciate you having the hearing. Ive enjoyed listening to our witnesses and hearing your and senator menendezs opening comments. I have a question for each of the witnesses just quickly if we could to start. We have so many challenges with china and we havent even gotten into some of the trade challenges we have had. But competitiveness and we talked about the human rights challenges, we talked about the challenge to our technology and innovation. Each of the witnesses very quickly, how would you describe our relationship with china and specifically would you consider china to be an adversary, a global competitor, an enemy how would you describe china today in relation to its relationship to the United States . Mr. Stillwell, why dont you start . I can answer credit quickly. Our official is china policy is china is a strategic competitor. Skin internal discussions, they have been referring to china as an enemy. In 2012, the peoples daily, one of the commonest Party Members they unashamedly noted that they had defected to the enemy. If you look at approaches and attitudes toward each other, the approach of the Trump Administration was long overdue. We are not using the word enemy. We are simply competing. In simply competing, we are having great effect in normalizing chinese behavior in the United States. It is adverse behavior in the United States and elsewhere in the world. The support is growing considerably as people recognize that the economic threats, you dont have to bow to those, you can stand up sovereignly. [indiscernible] i would echo the term strategic competitor as we describe it certainly in the National Security strategy, but to point out that in europe we see this as the prc trying to establish their own strategic foothold and indeed promote an authoritarian model of governance and statecontrolled economy and challenge u. S. National security by weakening our political and economic and military ties. Indeed, over the last 12 years, the prc gained increasing influence over european markets and supply chains, something the europeans particularly since covid have been focusing on in terms of resilience and working with us on that the 2008 financial crisis really exposed that, where the prc came in and targeted investment strategies, strategic industries, and critical infrastructure, including courts and other things. We have seen a sea change in the last couple years. Due to our own realization of chinas longterm strategy, sharing that with our European Partners and allies, including at nato, where we have officially put into natos doctrine Going Forward to look at the challenges and opportunities of the prc as a strategic competitor and you have seen the europeans adopt investment screening mechanisms at the national level. The e. U. Itself adopting for instance a cyber sanctions. They had their first designation under the cyber sanction regulations. Thanks for that. Let me get to another question. I appreciate the hard work that you are doing and i think people have begun to wake up to the challenge. They do need to wake up finally catching up, there does need to be information to prevent better how they can screen investments. You know, some of the challenges we face we talked about this morning, the answer is lets require china to do certain things. It is important to provide some additional leveling of the Playing Field and i dont disagree with that and i mentioned trade earlier, an area where they have done things either by subsidizing or selling below cost, they were just wrong and violated international norms, but it seems to me a lot of are more productive approach to china would be getting our own house in order. Competitiveness would be the most obvious example with that. Including the bipartisan leadership. How do you safeguard American Intellectual property, american taxpayer paid research . We have the safeguarding American Innovation act that comes out of a yearlong investigation and we were able to expose that china has been systematically targeting american researchers, usually again taxpayer paid research and systematically taking that Research Back to china. Since we came out with a report and we had a shocking hearing on this topic about what has happened the fbi, department of justice, u. S. Attorneys have stepped up and they have made public arrests of chinese researchers, who have taken u. S. Paid research and taken it to china to help the chinese economy and chinese military. That legislation we are trying to get passed on the floor now. It is not only the result, it has also been reported and i will tell you that we are now told that the fbi is opening a new china related investigation every 10 hours with about 20 20 500 open counterintelligence investigations. That is public information. We know more in classified settings we can talk about today, but our Research Organization has been going out the door particularly to china. Other countries, as well. My point is we have things to do internally to tighten up. This is not about telling china what they have to do. It is about telling our universities and Research Institutions they have to tighten up. It is tightening up our visa requirements. We need a way to help the state department be able to screen. I wonder if you have comments about safeguarding the American Innovation act and the need to get our own house in order to be able to protect taxpayer paid research and be therefore more competitive in an increasingly difficult climate with china. Senator, i will say briefly in the closure of the houston consulate, this is the tip of the iceberg of the things were doing that align nicely with what you are saying. Thank you. Senator portman, we are really short on time here. If you have some additional i just wanted for the record, mr. Chairman that would be the way to do competitionudentcam engages international ampetition for creating documentary, exploring the issues they most want the president and new congress to address in 2021. The framers of the as shown in the fifth or eight amendments. When you are given the opportunity and the skill to become informed voters and engaged citizens, results. Democracy must be learned. Tumultuous pathway to citizenship for children who were born here but whose parents illegally migrated here, and hurts many people. We are awarding 100,000 dollars in total cash prizes including a grand prize of 5,000. The deadline is january 20, 2021. The competition rules tips, and more information on how to get righted, go to our website, studentcam. Org. Next, a debate in kansas between Roger Marshall and barbara bully a. They are running to see who replaces pat roberts, who has already announced his retirement. Several kansas radio stations hosted this event. Good day, everyone, and welcome to the kansas u. S. Senate debate on the kansas agriculture network, Kansas Information Network and fm news 104. 9, the flagship of the kansas radio networks. I will be serving as moderator of