Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines sat before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence last March and calmly explained why Communist China is no friend of the United States.
"(T)he People's Republic of China -- which is increasingly challenging the United States economically, technologically, politically, and militarily around the world -- remains our unparalleled priority," she said.
"(T)he CCP," said Haines, "continues to take an increasingly aggressive approach to external affairs, pursuing its goal of building a world-class military; expanding its nuclear arsenal; pursuing counter-space weapons capable of targeting U.S. and allied satellites; forcing foreign companies and coercing foreign countries to allow the transfer of technology and intellectual property in order to boost its indigenous capabilities; continuing to increase global supply chain dependencies on China with the aim of using such technologies and dependencies, rather, to threaten and cut off foreign countries during a crisis; expanding its cyber pursuits and increasing the threat of aggressive cyber operations against the U.S. homeland and foreign partners; and expanding influence operations, including through the export of digital repression technologies."
The Annual Threat Assessment the DNI published in February stated: "Beijing is accelerating the development of key capabilities that it believes the People's Liberation Army (PLA) needs to confront the United States in a large-scale, sustained conflict."
In her testimony, as summarized on the DNI's website, "Haines emphasized the national security challenges posed by China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea."
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In January 2021, as this column has noted before, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said "genocide is ongoing" in China. In January 2023, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said China was "perpetrating an ongoing genocide."
In March 2023, the same month Haines testified in the Senate intelligence committee, the State Department released its annual report on human rights in China. That report also stated that China was engaging in genocide.
"Genocide and crimes against humanity occurred during the year against predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang," said the State Department. "These crimes were continuing and included: the arbitrary imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty of more than one million civilians; forced sterilization, coerced abortions, and more restrictive application of the country's birth control policies; rape and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence; torture of a large number of those arbitrarily detained; and persecution including forced labor and draconian restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, freedom of expression, and freedom of movement."
So, should taxes that the American people pay to the government of the United States be invested in the People's Republic of China -- or in Russia, North Korea or Iran?
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer voted last month to let such investments continue.
When the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2024 came up in the Senate on July 27, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida offered an amendment -- that was co-sponsored by Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Republicans Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa and Dan Sullivan of Arkansas. It said, as explained in its summary, that money from the Thrift Savings Fund -- which handles the pensions of U.S. servicemembers and federal workers -- "may not be invested in securities that are listed on certain foreign exchanges."
Specifically, these are exchanges in "countries of concern," meaning a country "identified as a threat to the national security of the United States in the most recent report submitted by the Director of National Intelligence... (commonly referred to as the 'Annual Threat Assessment')."
In other words, under this amendment, the pension funds of U.S. servicemembers and civilian federal employees could not be invested in China, Russia, North Korea or Iran.
When Rubio's amendment came up for a vote on July 27, he gave a brief speech on the Senate floor.
"The federal Thrift Savings plan is the largest defined contribution plan in the world," Rubio said. "It has 22 China-only funds. Every single one of them has money going toward companies that are sanctioned, that are on the Entity List -- companies that are responsible for the human rights violations against the Uyghurs; companies that our own government has said are helping the Chinese build their military -- Chinese-sponsored companies."
"Federal employee retirement money is being invested in companies that are undermining American national security, according to our own government," said Rubio.
"Think about the irony," he said. "You are a member of the military and your retirement money is being invested in companies that are building missiles designed to blow up the ship that you serve on.
"So, if we are serious about this," he said, "we need to cut this off."
Who could disagree with Rubio's excellent amendment?
It needed 60 votes to be added to the NDAA. It got 55.
In addition to co-sponsor Shaheen, eight senators who caucus with the Democrats voted for this amendment to stop federal pension funds from being invested in China. These included independents Angus King of Maine and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, and Democrats Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Gary Peters of Michigan, Jon Tester of Montana and Mark Warner of Virginia.
Chuck Schumer went the other way -- and helped maintain the flow of federal tax dollars to a genocidal communist regime.
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