Transcript of Ranking Member Khanna’s Opening Statement from Hearing on China’s Economic Espionage and Subnational Influence in the United States

WASHINGTON – Today, the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party held a hearing titled China’s Economic Espionage and Subnational Influence in the United States.

The following witnesses provided testimony:

• Mr. John C. Yang, President and Executive Director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice
• Mr. David Shedd, Former Acting Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency
• Mr. Michael Lucci, Founder & CEO of State Armor

Below is a transcript of the opening statement from Ranking Member Ro Khanna. Footage of the Ranking Member’s opening statement can be found here.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I appreciate the bipartisan way you have conducted this committee and your leadership. 

I share the concerns about China's economic espionage. It is undisputed that they have stolen intellectual property from American manufacturers, that they required coercive joint venture agreements. 

Our companies went there, and basically to have access to the market were required to give up intellectual property. 

And they have tried to get intellectual property from our technology companies and our manufacturers. 

And we need to stop that. 

We need to stop the offshoring of our jobs to China, the offshoring of our industrial base to China and certainly make sure that we have a level, fair playing field. 

We don't steal China's technology. They shouldn't be stealing ours. 

We don't have economic espionage with China. They shouldn't be having economic espionage with us. 

And we need to have self-reliance on critical industries in this country. And so I look forward, on that, to working on a bipartisan basis. 

But I do want to also as an Asian American, as a son of immigrants, to speak to the United States’ troubled history with discrimination based on race or national origin. 

And I appreciate, Mr. John Yang being here to help provide that perspective which is so important as we consider the real threats that the United States faces. 

You can go back to Frederick Douglass and his “Composite Nation” speech in 1869, where he stood up for the rights of Chinese immigrants. And soon after Douglass’ urging that we have Chinese immigrants in the United States, unfortunately, the country went in a different direction. They had the 1882 Exclusion Act. 
We have had a history of discriminating against Asian immigrants to be citizens, to own land. 

And we had this awful thing called the China Initiative, which Mr. Yang has done incredible work on, which basically went after Chinese American professors and Chinese-American scientists and made them feel unwelcome, made them feel profiled, harassed them. 

And now it's been discontinued, because they recognize that Chinese Americans actually contribute to the United States. 

Did you know that of the top AI researchers in the United States, 38% of them are of Chinese origin? 

We would not have Silicon Valley if we did not have the Chinese origin top AI researchers in this country. Jensen Huang, who leads the entire AI revolution, is someone who was of Chinese origin.

The reality is that the top 72% of STEM graduates – 72% of them come from countries outside the United States. 

So, I am very, very passionate, Mr. Chairman, that as we look at the legitimate threats that [the] Chinese government poses to America's economic Independence, we do not in any way conflate it with the harassment of Chinese immigrants, of Chinese Americans, of Chinese students. 

And we recognize the incredible value and role that they play in the United States. 

So, I look forward to that conversation and hope we can keep that distinction in mind.