Senator Schmitt Sends Letter to Joint Economic Committee Chairman, Vice Chairman Requesting Chinese Economic Report

This request is aimed to rebuild and mirror prior efforts that the Joint Economic Committee took in response to the Soviet Union – releasing public reports to allow the United States to counter a growing Chinese economic threat  

WASHINGTON – Yesterday, Senator Eric Schmitt wrote a letter to Chairman Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Congressman David Schweikert (R-AZ), requesting the Committee revamp an unclassified report to be used to counteract the growing Chinese economy. This report was often utilized by the United States to counter the Soviet Union and protect the American economy during the Cold War: 

“The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) represents a grave economic and national security threat to the United States and its partners. With currency manipulation, malicious trade practices, and theft of intellectual property, the CCP has harmed the American economy and the American worker. The United States has come to realize the malevolent intent of the CCP and has engaged in a whole-of-government approach to posture ourselves against a stronger and more aggressive CCP. Indeed, the 2022 National Defense Strategy of the United States stated that the ‘PRC remains our most consequential strategic competitor for the coming decades,’” begins the letter.

“The United States Joint Economic Committee (JEC) played a significant role in combatting the Soviet test during the 20th century. Drawing on the depth and breadth of economic knowledge in the United States, from scholars to governmental agencies, the Committee analyzed and reported on the Soviet economy. This analysis and the subsequent reports were especially important, as the Soviet Union stood to gain from lying about its economic condition. The analysis born from these efforts are still cited today,” continues the letter.

“I welcome the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission’s recommendation for the Committee to produce an annual report that would provide vital information on the PRC economy and the economic policy decisions of the CCP. To that end, I call on the Joint Economic Committee to hold a hearing on the Committee’s previous work on the Soviet Union and how those efforts can be reimagined to meet the geopolitical threat of the 21st century posed by the People’s Republic of China. Additionally, the hearing should address which aspects of the Chinese economy are most crucial to our understanding of the country, some of which I have outlined above. The JEC should be critical in shaping a whole-of-government approach to the challenges that China’s revanchist economic activities present, and I look forward to working with the committee to that end.” concludes the letter.

BACKGROUND:

• The last 20-30 years have seen China growing in power, since being admitted into the World Trade Organization and establishing permanent normal trading relations with the United States. An adversary as formidable as the old Soviet Union in the twentieth century, the People’s Republic of China represents the greatest threat to the United States, both militarily and economically. 
• The assumption that China would play by the rules of global trade and gradually transition to a market economy has not happened.Instead, China began dictating the terms of its economic relationship with the United States, harming American workers and businesses in the process. 
• China has weaponized its economic relationship with the United States and other Western countries to build up its military capacity and further enhance its surveillance state. At the same time, the Chinese housing market is experiencing a crash, with debt, supply, and consumer disinterest all wreaking havoc on the CCP’s ability to achieve the 5.0% GDP growth goal that Beijing has for itself.
  • This is not the first time one of China’s real estate groups signaled financial trouble. Ever Grande was recently ordered by a Hong Kong judge to liquidate, foreshadowing the company’s breakup, the New York Times reported. China’s Country Garden also revealed being unable to pay loans and signaling the property developer will default on its debt.

Read the full letter here.