Chinese Influence — How Congress Is Countering: An Interview with Rep. Andy Barr

The outset of the coronavirus pandemic — and the Chinese Communist Party’s conduct in the months that followed — have accelerated a reckoning with U.S. policy toward the People’s Republic. Whereas top policy makers once believed in the prospects of liberalization through engagement, an emerging bipartisan consensus sees the CCP as a global opponent with ambitions that span the globe. Over the past several months, the Trump administration has — as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo put it in July — effectively ended the age of “blind engagement” by implementing a series of measures to push back against malign CCP activity in a number of areas.

Now Congress is joining the charge. Combating the CCP’s global influence has become a top target for lawmakers of both parties. In June, the Republican Study Committee — which comprises some 150 members of Congress — launched a report that included headline-catching proposals to go after the CCP’s united-front influence network. Another list of proposals is expected on October 1, this one from the House Republican conference’s China Task Force, which was convened in May with an eye toward a legislative overhaul of U.S.–China relations. National Review’s Jimmy Quinn spoke with Representative Andy Barr (R., Ky.) last week to discuss his work on the task force, how the CCP leverages its influence over private companies to exert its power abroad, and the prospects of bipartisan cooperation on China going forward.

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The outset of the coronavirus pandemic — and the Chinese Communist Party’s conduct in the months that followed — have accelerated a reckoning with U.S. policy toward the People’s Republic. Whereas top policy makers once believed in the prospects of liberalization through engagement, an emerging bipartisan consensus sees the CCP as a global opponent with ambitions that span the globe. Over the past several months, the Trump administration has — as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo put it in July — effectively ended the age of “blind engagement” by implementing a series of measures to push back against malign CCP activity in a number of areas.

Now Congress is joining the charge. Combating the CCP’s global influence has become a top target for lawmakers of both parties. In June, the Republican Study Committee — which comprises some 150 members of Congress — launched a report that included headline-catching proposals to go after the CCP’s united-front influence network. Another list of proposals is expected on October 1, this one from the House Republican conference’s China Task Force, which was convened in May with an eye toward a legislative overhaul of U.S.–China relations. National Review’s Jimmy Quinn spoke with Representative Andy Barr (R., Ky.) last week to discuss his work on the task force, how the CCP leverages its influence over private companies to exert its power abroad, and the prospects of bipartisan cooperation on China going forward.