Rep. Moolenaar Outlines His Vision as New Chair of House China Panel

U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) speaks during hearings on then-President Donald Trump's first budget on Capitol Hill in Washington, on March 28, 2017. Zach Gibson/Getty Images

Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), the new chair of the House China panel, has set his priorities largely following his predecessor’s: deter the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military aggression on Taiwan, protect American technology and supply chain, and prevent CCP proxies from harassing people on U.S. soil.

In a video released on Monday, Mr. Moolenaar highlighted his concern that “the CCP is actively working to weaken America.”

He said his concerns had only grown stronger over the 14 months serving on the committee as a member.

“I’ve witnessed the CCP’s near-constant efforts to undermine America’s core values and sovereignty. Just look at the CCP’s use of TikTok to indoctrinate our children, their efforts to buy our farmland, and the secret police stations the Chinese government has directed and operated right here on U.S. soil.”

April 20 was inaugural chair Mike Gallagher’s (R-Wis.) last day. In February, he announced his retirement and eventually decided to leave Congress this month.

Mr. Gallagher exited after the committee achieved significant accomplishments.

Founded originally as a two-year select committee in January 2023 with no legislative authorities, the panel used its first year to conduct investigations and form policy recommendations.

When Mr. Gallagher left, the committee’s Taiwan policy recommendations had been included in the 2024 annual defense act, including increased congressional oversight of weapons sales to the island to reduce the backlog. A foreign aid package for Taiwan included over $3 billion for purchasing advanced U.S. weapons.

The TikTok divest-or-ban bill he introduced was overwhelmingly passed in the House in mid-March, and on April 20, an amended version extended the divestiture deadline from six to twelve months. President Joe Biden signed it into law last week after the Senate passed it as a part of the foreign aid package.

The law gives ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, a year to sell the app, or it will be banned from mobile app stores and web-hosting services in the United States. The initial deadline is Jan. 19, 2025, before the next presidential inauguration day. According to the law, President Biden can extend the deadline by three months to allow the deal to be completed.

One initiative Mr. Gallagher left pending is the BIOSECURE Act, which forbids the federal government from contracting with biotechnology providers with connections to foreign adversaries. Last month, the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee advanced a companion version after a classified intelligence briefing.

The bill currently names Wuxi AppTec, a drug research and testing company, Wuxi Biologics, a biomanufacturing company, and MGI Tech, a gene-sequencing machine manufacturer that is a subsidiary of Beijing Genomics Institute.

The committee said these companies had ties with the communist regime’s People’s Liberation Army. These companies had denied posing any national security risks and argued that their names should be removed from the bill, but the Senate committee moved forward with a version that kept their names.

Wuxi AppTec and Wuxi Biologics’s stocks on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange dropped by about half since the House bill was introduced in late January. The three companies together lost a total of $22 billion in market capitalization in the past months.

The House version is still under review by the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

Although Mr. Moolenaar didn’t mention in his video speech about resetting the U.S. economic relationship with China, he will continue to counter the CCP’s economic aggression and its aggressive trade practices, a source close to the committee told The Epoch Times.

In an earlier interview with NTD’s “Capitol Report,” Mr. Moolenaar spoke about the importance of the reset.

“The China of 30 years ago is very different than the China today, even five years ago. They’ve become more aggressive at home, abroad, militarily, and it’s important that we reset that relationship,” he told NTD.

“To me, it’s important that we compete and win this competition economically, militarily, and protect freedom around the world.”