Both Parties Lack Leadership When It Comes to China: Former Congressman

Former Republican congressman Dave Brat (R-Va.), at CPAC, in Orlando, Fla., on Feb. 26, 2021. Epoch Times/Crossroads

Dave Brat, former congressman and the dean of Liberty University’s business school, told The Epoch Times’ sister media NTD TV on Nov. 10 that the Democrats and Republicans both lack the leadership to concretely deal with the China threat.

“So there was no leadership position on anything that I heard. And so a great country requires leadership,” said Brat when asked about the significant thing to watch out for in Congress about China after the midterm elections.

“China knows how to lead—I think they’re leading in the wrong direction, but they know how to lead. And now it’s incumbent on our leaders on the Democrat side and the Republican side to stand up for liberal principles,” said Brat.

The midterms and their impact on U.S. foreign policy, particularly the China policy, have been a frequent topic of discussion this month. A day before Brat’s interview, Christopher M. Tuttle, senior fellow and director of the Renewing America Initiative at the Council on Foreign Relations, said in a commentary that foreign policy will unlikely see a big change after the midterms.

“To be clear, lawmakers in both parties had principled, well-founded worries about China, but they were also channeling U.S. public opinion,” said Tuttle.

While the Biden administration carried forward former President Donald Trump’s policies on China, in the 118th Congress there could be a regression from the relatively hardline stance of the Trump administration, according to Tuttle.

“For example, Biden has suggested relaxing certain China tariffs, a move he might be able to get away with without taking too much fire from [Capitol] Hill, given the support of many Republicans for such a move,” he said.

Brat, however, said that economic measures against China aren’t the only factor and that leadership is key for both parties to tackle the CCP threat, a topic he said still has room for bipartisanship.

“But right now, the hard left seems to have the blue party going. And the Republican Party … there was no leadership prior to the election. I think that the philosophy was, if your opponent’s digging a hole, which everyone thought [they were] on the economic grounds, that’s all you need to do. You don’t need to lead,” he said. “So there was no leadership position on anything that I heard.”

Brat said that while China is only becoming more aggressive, the leadership in both parties has still not caught up with delivering the right messages to contain the China threat.

“I don’t see much leadership or messaging coming out from either side, which to me, is tragic,” he said.