Chairman Hill: Today’s Hearing Is Based On The Idea That Beating China Means Doubling Down On Our Strengths
Washington,
February 25, 2025 -
Today, the House Financial Services Committee, led by Chairman French Hill (AR-02), is holding a hearing entitled "Examining Policies to Counter China."
Watch Chairman Hill’s opening remarks here.
Read Chairman Hill’s opening remarks as prepared for delivery:
"I want to welcome our Members to this hearing on China, and I look forward to our witnesses’ testimony.
"Everyone in this room with a background in China policy will surely recall 'The Race to 5G' – an obsession from just a few years ago – we told our partners when it comes to telecom infrastructure: 'there’s a right way and there’s ‘Huawei.’
"And yet, like other technologies before it, 5G showed that it’s not always about which country launches an innovation first, but rather who possesses the economic system to transform these technological advances into winning new products, services, and resulting economic and productivity advances.
"I open with this example because the broader context of our economic and geopolitical rivalry with China is often neglected.
"Instead, narrow questions end up taking on existential importance: one day it’s a race to 5G, the next it’s a trendy Chinese app, like TikTok, or today, it’s DeepSeek’s ability to answer a question in more or less time than a U.S. competitor.
"Of course, all these things merit our close attention. But if they are the 'trees', then Congress must still see the 'forest.'
"For instance, what happens if we edge out China in AI, but Washington prevents our companies from commercializing it globally?
"What if we secure a one-year lead in hypersonics, but a defense procurement obstacle course makes its deployment a pipe dream?
"What if we cultivate the greatest technical minds in the world, but our tangle of red tape regulations mean taking their startups public is out of the question?
"In short, winning a race is no substitute for choosing a better way of life with a better political and economic system.
"Our hearing today will examine tools to counter China but make no mistake: those tools are embedded in an American system, and it’s the health of our thriving system that ultimately decides who will prevail.
"We use sanctions, for example, but sanctions didn’t build us a $30 trillion economy. We use export controls, but it wasn’t export controls that created eight American exceptional technology companies worth more than a trillion dollars each.
"We use the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, but CFIUS didn’t make the dollar the world’s premier reserve currency. We forget these facts at our peril.
"Today’s hearing is based on the idea that beating China means doubling down on our strengths.
"First, we must ensure our fiscal house is in order and on a sustainable path.
"Next, we must lead a global financial system where like-minded market economies that reject non-transparent, predatory loans and mercantilism while crafting and enforcing rules that safeguard economic growth and stability.
"Second, our investors, markets and institutions – small and large – must be able to nurture cutting edge ideas from friends and family backed start-ups to an IPO.
"Third, we must ensure that access to capital is coupled with access to energy. That means the U.S. must champion an 'all of the above' energy abundance, offering the world a real alternative to failed Chinese loans and white elephants.
"And last but not least, our strength depends on prioritizing Americans’ health and the safety of our hometowns and cities, which have been devastated by an opioid scourge that China has helped unleash.
"Each of these elements is key to any real China strategy, and it's critical that they are all being addressed today."
