The U.S. House unanimously agreed to condemn the Chinese Communist Party’s spy balloon to gather intelligence over the United States. The resolution called the action “a brazen violation of United States sovereignty,” a statement used by Missouri 2nd District Congresswoman Ann Wagner in a House hearing this week.
In a Financial Services Committee hearing entitled, “Combatting the Economic Threat from China,” Wagner responded to the massive Chinese balloon that passed over Missouri:
“My children and I, along with countless families across St. Louis, watched in real time from our porches, our backyard outside of our businesses as a foreign aircraft equipped with spyware navigated over our neighborhoods, again, our infrastructure, our nuclear plants and Callaway on military bases, and such. China’s decision to send a spy balloon into us airspace was a profound and deliberate provocation.”
Rep Ann Wagner in House Financial Services Committee 2023. (US House Video)
Wagner chairs a key financial subcommittee and serves on the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Three members of the Missouri delegation sit on the Financial Services panel, which questioned global trade and national security specialists about how China’s government actions affect our economy.
Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer, who chairs a national security subcommittee, said that in 2020, the U.S. trade deficit with China was $310 billion dollars.
“As of January 9, 2023, there were 252 Chinese companies listed on U.S. exchanges with a total market capitalization over $1 trillion.In 2021, the US trade deficit with China was $355 billion. It’s hard to put a dollar sign on China’s theft of international intellectual property. Certain estimates put it as much as $600 billion a year. It is our committee’s job to examine all interconnections between the Chinese and US economy, specifically connections supporting China’s military and human rights abuses and pursuit options to eliminate U.S. capital flowing in to those areas, Luetkemeyer told his colleagues.
Kansas City Democrat Emanuel Cleaver called the hearing “extremely important”
“The world’s two biggest economies, United States and China. We are in a battle with a nation that uses this nation using using the government of the nation to propel this development and around the world,” he said
Cleaver added that the problem is complicated by the fact that the U.S. continues to import more goods from China than any other nation – keeping prices low and corporate profits high.
“My issue is, we have a schizophrenic relationship, don’t we?” he asked.
