Senator Ricketts’ Weekly Column: Combatting the Chinese Communist Party

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the greatest foreign threat facing the United States today. They steal our intellectual property. They pursue economic and trade policies that undermine our economy. They repeatedly violate American sovereignty with spy stations, spy balloons, and other forms of espionage. They fuel the fentanyl crisis which continues to kill in Nebraska and across the country.

CCP dictator Xi Jinping has said he wants to be the global dominating power by 2049. That means displacing the United States. I’m fighting for an all-of-government approach to make sure that doesn’t happen. The Biden-Harris administration must take Xi seriously and act accordingly.

The CCP continues to endanger freedom in America. CCP espionage regularly threatens America’s economy and national security. The recent arrest of a former top aide to the Governor of New York made it clear they are actively trying to undermine our government from within. CCP intelligence has relationships with “service centers” located across our country. CCP scientists and researchers have used American taxpayer dollars to fund research strengthening China’s military instead of ours. The People’s Republic of China is a bad trade partner. They put ethnic minorities like the Uyghurs into forced labor camps. Their government also subsidizes their own industries to make low-cost products that threaten American manufacturers’ ability to compete.

Around the world, the PRC continually violates the sovereignty of strategic American allies like the Philippines. They consistently threaten to invade Taiwan, another important U.S. partner. These actions could spark another global war. That would have devastating consequences on the security and prosperity of free countries like ours. It would put U.S. military personnel in harm’s way. Global supply chains would be disrupted. Our economy would be impacted. We must prevent that from happening.

Despite all these growing threats, the Biden-Harris administration’s appeasement-first mentality has led to weakness instead of strength. Their EV mandates are increasing our dependence on rare earth elements that overwhelmingly come from China. The administration’s attempts to hold the CCP accountable for its role in the production of deadly fentanyl precursors have failed. These drugs kill Americans like Nebraskan mom of two, Taryn lee Griffith. And instead of investing in American defense programs that increase our deterrence, the Biden-Harris administration has prioritized partisan spending bills which increase our debt.

We must do more to fight the CCP’s rise head-on. As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I am leading a stronger response to the CCP in the U.S. Senate.

Recently, I introduced a package of five bills to combat the CCP’s influence in America. One bill would seek to secure our domestic food and agriculture supply chain and reduce our reliance on adversaries like the CCP. Another would pressure college endowments to stop investing in Chinese stocks. A third would eliminate tax advantages for investments in Chinese companies. Another would ban buying stocks in Chinese companies whose products are already banned here. A fifth bill would prohibit index funds from investing in Chinese companies. Many of these ideas are bipartisan. Preventing American tax dollars from supporting our adversaries is common-sense. I’ve also co-sponsored legislation to close the loopholes that have allowed China’s military to benefit from American taxpayer-funded research.

Combatting the CCP at home and abroad is not a new issue for me. When I was Governor, I moved Nebraska’s trade office from Shanghai to Germany. When it was clear Confucius Institutes could undermine academic integrity, import censorship, and risk national security, I successfully lobbied to remove it from the from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I was the first Governor in America to ban TikTok from state government devices. I also called out the CCP’s many human rights abuses.

We must not be afraid to state the truth: communism is an un-American ideology. Its expansion has had deadly consequences. A CCP-led world would mean coercion instead of choice, tyranny instead of liberty, and dictatorship instead of democracy. Our fundamental freedoms are at stake. America must not allow the CCP to succeed. At every level of government and across our society, we must respond to these threats and lead through strength.