Biden ‘Stronger’ Against CCP with United Congress: McCarthy

U.S. President Joe Biden sits next to Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) during the National Prayer Breakfast at the Capitol in Washington on Feb. 2, 2023. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The top Republican in Congress hopes that a bipartisan consensus on the threat posed by communist China can help strengthen President Joe Biden’s position against the regime.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said that a strong bipartisan foundation for China policy would improve the president’s ability to meet the threat posed by Beijing head-on.

“If we have the policymakers on board, we could send the president policy that will make him stronger and give him a stronger hand,” McCarthy said during a March 1 interview with Fox News.

“I want to empower the president. If we are united in the House, it gives the president a stronger hand. In essence, the House can try to give him a backbone.”

Party leader Xi Jinping votes at the closing of the 19th Communist Party Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on Oct. 24, 2017. Lintao Zhang/Getty Images

On the issue of whether Congress could actually find consensus with the White House, McCarthy expressed hope, saying that it was the job of all in government to defend the nation.

“He is the President of the United States. I am the Speaker of the House. Our job is to work to try to find what is best for America,” McCarthy said.

Likewise, he said, it was the responsibility of Congress to help inform the president just how much Chinese communist leader Xi Jinping had changed for the worse, and to what extent he must be pushed back against.

“We need to speak directly to China,” McCarthy said. “And, regardless of how long he thinks he has known Xi, Xi is a different person than he was before and China is in a different place than it was before, and they think they are stronger than they were before. We need to be united to do that.”

McCarthy made the remarks just a day after the first hearing of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which sought to outline the “threat from communist China.”

‘Prove Them Wrong’

Select Committee Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) similarly said that China’s communist regime seeks to exploit political divisions within the United States and that a more united Congress was among the best deterrents to CCP aggression.

“The CCP wants us to be fractious, partisan, and prejudiced,” Krishnamoorthi said.

“We must rise to the occasion and prove them wrong.”

For his part, McCarthy said that the United States had previously struggled to speak to China with one voice, but that bipartisan efforts like the select committee would help to strengthen the nation and prevent the regime from further undermining American interests.

“I’ve always thought that one of our biggest problems with China is we have never spoken with one voice,” McCarthy said. “They see the divide and they take advantage of it.”

“If we can lay the barriers out with united Republicans and Democrats, it really puts the hardline against China so that they understand we mean business.”