Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), chairman of the House CCP Select Committee, said that if President Joe Biden wanted bipartisanship, he could have obtained it by using the State of the Union to push for measures such as prohibiting CCP land purchases, prohibiting researchers connected to China’s military from working at American universities, and eliminating CCP police stations on American soil.
“If you are worried about a Chinese spy balloon,” Gallagher said, “You should be worried about what is basically a spy balloon floating in your pocket or even in your bedroom, which is an app that has been largely controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. As a result, the CCP has sizable espionage and influence infrastructure, and this is not limited to the Indo-Pacific. It’s taking place right now, throughout all 50 states. Therefore, the President could have brought up this issue last night and used it to inspire bipartisan action to implement straightforward, sensible measures like outlawing CCP land purchases in America, expelling PLA-affiliated researchers from American universities, and dismantling these CCP police stations that are present on American soil.”
“The President,” he continued, “returned to the old rhetorical fallacy of declaring that we desire agreement on certain topics. The notion that the Chinese Communist Party will meaningfully work with us on climate change is a dream, and it is undermining the coherence of our strategy and keeping us from taking firm action against the assault we are witnessing from the CCP.”
