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