If they win the House of Representatives, congressional Republicans plan to set up a China committee-
According to the US election plan, as of the evening of Monday (November 7) on the eve of the election, at least 42 million people in the United States have completed early voting. Multiple polls predict that the probability of Republicans winning control of the House of Representatives is quite high. According to the US polling website FiveThirtyEight, Republicans end up with an 80% chance of outpacing Democrats by 1 to 33 seats.
"Republicans will control the majority in the House of Representatives, but the Senate election is still in a stalemate," Politico, a U.S. political news outlet, reported Monday.
A Republican-majority House of Representatives is expected to block the legislative agenda of the Biden administration and Democrats. Still, Republicans want to work with Democrats on China-related issues to achieve bipartisan consensus on policy pushes.
Republican U.S. Rep. Gallagher from Wisconsin. Mike Gallagher, R-WI, said that if Republicans win the House majority after the election, they plan to create a special committee on China that would consolidate the jurisdictional powers of the various House committees to address the challenges posed by China.
"McCarthy (Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-CA, wants to set up a China ad hoc committee when he becomes speaker," Gallagher told VOA. I think it's going to be an integrated way that effectively crosses the terms of reference of different committees, and the Chinese issue involves many different committees, so we need an ad hoc committee like that to go beyond the compartmentalization of committees. That's what we would do in the House.”
Gallagher is currently a member of the House Intelligence Committee and the Armed Services Committee. He further emphasized that the China committee would be similar to an upgraded version of the China Task Force that currently has only Republicans in the House of Representatives.
In fact, Republican leaders in the House have more than once expressed their desire to create a bipartisan "China committee" in Congress.
When House Minority Leader McCarthy announced the establishment of the "China Working Group" in May 2020, he mentioned that they had planned to work together with Democrats to establish the working group to discuss China, but Democratic leaders withdrew their last-minute decision to agree to join the "China Working Group."
According to The Washington Post, Democrats worried that the China issue was too politicized.
Subsequently, Republican leader McCarthy announced the establishment of a "China Working Group" by House Republicans and designated Rep. McCall, the chief Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Michael McCaul, R-TX) is the chairman.
Bloomberg News reported late last month that if it wins the House, Republican leaders have promised to form a subcommittee to investigate the Chinese threat and the coronavirus traceability.
McCarthy said on an Oct. 30 Fox News television program that the work of such a Chinese ad hoc committee would include investigating allegations by American companies of Chinese theft of intellectual property and China's attempts to dominate key industries.
Multiple Republican lawmakers have pledged to take a tougher stance on everything from securing supply chains to investigating the origins of the coronavirus.
House Republicans held a news conference in early September vowing to take a tougher stance on China if they become the majority in Congress in the midterm elections.
"For 50 years, the Chinese Communist Party has launched attacks on the American way of life, our economy, our jobs, our companies, our culture, our institutions, and our future," McCarthy said.”
If Republicans take control of the House in the midterm elections, McCarthy, who is now the House Minority Leader, is believed to be the Speaker of the House, while Rep. McCaul of Texas is believed to be chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"Let me tell you, when we take back the majority in Congress, we'll be ready for America to win the great power race with China," McCall said.
He went on to stress, "My immediate priority is to stop the export of these technologies and stop these technologies from being sold to China, so that they can use them to build their own war machines, and then turn these technologies against us."”
It is unclear what the specific implementation plan for the Republican "China committee" will be. According to The Hill, a person familiar with the plan is expected to focus on domestic affairs as well as economic and technology-related issues. A number of standing committees with access to classified information will be responsible for leading matters relating to military forces.
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