Top House Republican Plans Special Committee on China

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said on Nov. 20 that if he becomes the speaker of the chamber, he will set up a committee with the sole focus on the communist Chinese regime.

“China is the No. 1 country when it comes to intellectual property theft,” McCarthy said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday. “All the nations combined, Chinese steals more than them.”

The Chinese regime’s ongoing theft of intellectual property, which has continued for more than two decades, costs the United States an estimated $200 billion to $600 billion a year, according to Michael Orlando, acting director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

McCarthy accused the Biden administration of failing to stand up against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“We will put a stop to this and no longer allow the administration to sit back and let China do what they are doing to America,” he said.

“When I become speaker, I’m going to have a select committee on China.”

The House minority leader will likely become the chamber’s speaker after Republicans won a majority during the midterm elections. McCarthy was elected as the House Republicans’ leader last week, clearing the first step of gaining the speaker’s gavel.

But hurdles remain for winning the majority support from his colleagues. Several GOPs, including Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), had publicly said they would not back McCarthy, who now needs 218 votes when the entire House casts ballots for the speaker in January 2023. McCarthy on Sunday urged House Republicans to “work as one” so that they could move forward with the party’s agenda.

McCarthy said he is eyeing issues such as China-manufactured fentanyl flooding into U.S. borders, the technology and intellectual theft from Beijing, the Chinese police service stations in the United States, and the origin of COVID-19.

“This is where the fentanyl from China comes that will kill 300 Americans today, the No. 1 killer of the next generation,” he said.

The America ChangLe Association in New York on Oct. 6, 2022. An overseas Chinese police outpost in New York, called the Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station, is located inside the association building. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

The Republican congressman vows to stop the Chinese police authorities’ division on U.S. soil.

“We will stop these police stations in America,” McCarthy said.

The “overseas police service stations” raised concerns among lawmakers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and European countries after a September report by the nongovernmental organization Safeguard Defenders revealed the existence of such outposts is part of the CCP’s global, transnational repression.

Chinese police authorities have set up dozens of such stations across the world, including New York, Toronto, London, Paris, and Dublin, according to a review by Safeguard Defenders of China’s state media reports.

The Chinese authorities claimed the sites were for administrative purposes, such as helping the Chinese diaspora abroad to renew driver’s licenses.

However, the Europe-based rights advocacy noted the CCP’s “service stations” serve a “sinister goal,” including intimidating and surveilling overseas Chinese nationals, as well as pressuring those wanted by the CCP to return to China to face criminal charges.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said last week that Washington is aware of these offices in the United States.

“To me, it is outrageous to think that the Chinese police would attempt to set up shop—you know, in New York, let’s say—without proper coordination,” Wray told lawmakers on Nov. 17. “It violates sovereignty and circumvents standard judicial and law enforcement cooperation processes.”

“I’m deeply concerned about this,” Wray said.” I’m not going to just let it lie.”