Socialism Is ‘Pathway’ to Communism and Marxism: New China Committee Member

Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 15, 2021. Andrew Harnik/AP Photo

Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa), an appointee to a new bipartisan select committee investigating competition between the U.S. and the Chinese Communist Party, has denounced socialism as a horror in an interview on “Capitol Report,” a political news program on NTD, The Epoch Times’ sister media outlet.

“Socialism is that pathway to more extreme forms of government like communism and Marxism,” Hinson said. The Republican congresswoman represents Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District.

On Jan. 10, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to create the bipartisan House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It is the first bipartisan select committee dedicated to addressing the threats posed by the CCP.

Sending a Clear Signal

Hinson spoke with Capitol Report on Feb. 2, just before the House approved a resolution denouncing socialism in a bipartisan vote that cleared the chamber in a 328–86–14 vote. She said she shares the concerns of colleagues who have seen the repercussions of socialism and communism in their communities.

“My colleague, Maria Salazar from Florida represents one of the districts with the highest number of Cuban refugees in the country—they literally fled socialism. They know what that horror looks like; they know what a dictator looks like. And so it’s our opportunity to send a very clear signal to the American people. House Republicans are not going to let that happen,” she said on the NTD show before the resolution, which saw the support of 104 Democrats, was passed.

“Congress denounces socialism in all its forms, and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States of America,” the resolution read.

Hinson said the resolution makes it very clear that American people aren’t going to tolerate socialism.

Salazar (R-Fla.) had earlier reintroduced H.R. 314, the Fighting Oppression until the Reign of Castro Ends (FORCE) Act, on Jan. 13. That act will prevent the Biden administration from normalizing relations with Cuba unless it takes a path to freedom and democracy.

China’s Land Grab for US Farmland

Hinson was appointed to the new committee on China late last month. However, she has been raising concerns about Chinese companies owning U.S. farmland near military bases and other strategic interests for some time.

“It’s a threat plain and simple. You look at strategically where they have decided that they want to make those land purchases—in Iowa, in key agricultural states, near our military bases.” Hinson called the Chinese land purchases “alarming,” saying the percentage of land that the Chinese have purchased over the last ten years has grown exponentially. “They are our biggest threat and they are literally in our backyard,” she said.

In her official statement after being appointed to the 13-member committee chaired by Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), Hinson described the CCP as the greatest threat to the American economy, security, and way of life.

“From reshoring manufacturing jobs and supply chains, to stopping the CCP’s military aggression, and preventing China from purchasing more U.S. agricultural land—our committee will produce the policy blueprint to address these issues and ensure the U.S. is competing to win our Cold War with China,” she said in the statement.

‘Asleep at the Wheel’

On the NTD show, the congresswoman also raised the issue of U.S. intellectual property theft by the Chinese and emphasized on the need to create a “policy blueprint” that will allow the United States to remain competitive with China.

“They’re coming to states like Iowa, literally stealing our seeds and trying to take them back to China to reverse engineer them. And then you look at the military threat and the geopolitical threat to our allies,” she said.

Hinson was referring to the 2016 case of a Chinese national, Mo Hailong, who was caught stealing proprietary corn seeds from Iowa and across the farm belt of the Midwest. Mo was sending the stolen seeds to his employer, a Chinese corn seed company.

The stolen inbred seeds were unlike common hybrid seeds and were the valuable trade secrets of U.S. companies DuPont Pioneer and Monsanto, according to the FBI.

Hinson stressed that Americans have been “asleep at the wheel” in allowing things like this to happen. It’s vitally important to hold the Chinese accountable and deter their agenda against the United States, she cautioned.

“It is very clear that we need to take the Chinese Communist Party very seriously ... so that the next century is one of American values, not Chinese Communist Party values,” Hinson said.

Human Rights Abuses

Hinson said that a greater spotlight is needed on China’s human rights abuses. That will be one of the roles of the newly minted bipartisan committee.

“President Xi has turned a blind eye to it or willingly allowed it to happen—the abuses that are happening not only to the Uyghur Muslims in China, and forced slave labor, but the true oppression of its people. They’re holding their people back on purpose,” said Hinson. She added that one reason the members of the CCP have such tight security is because they are afraid of their own people.

According to the congresswoman, the committee’s job will be to expose abuses by the CCP and create policies to counter those abuses, ensuring that CCP members are held accountable. Other roles will be to ensure a strong strategic defense and to enable the re-homing of key manufacturing products that were earlier outsourced.

“We need to be intentional and send a very clear and direct message that we’re not going to tolerate that behavior,” said Hinson.