February 13, 2023Updated: February 13, 2023
Flanked by House
Republicans, U.S. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) speaks during a news conference at
the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Nov. 17, 2022. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
U.S. House Oversight
Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) warned on Feb. 12 that China is stealing
intellectual property and operating “a massive spy ring” within institutions
across the United States as he denounced the Biden administration for failing
to take a tougher stance on that country’s communist regime.
During an appearance on
ABC News’s “This
Week,”
Comer labeled the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as “a problem,” arguing
that the regime continues to steal “hard-earned research and development.”
“They continue to steal
our patents. They manipulate their currency,” he said. “We believe they have a
big footprint in academia with a massive spy ring within our research
universities where they continue to steal our hard-earned research and
development.”
“So, China’s a problem.
And this administration thus far hasn’t set a very good example of standing up
to China,” he continued. “I think that, you know, shooting the balloon down in
the Atlantic once it flew over all the military bases, including my own Fort
Campbell, Kentucky, it’s very disturbing.”
The lawmaker’s comment
follows weeks of international fallout that began when China flew a spy balloon over the United
States, which was ultimately shot down off the coast of South Carolina on Feb.
4, a week after it was first spotted over Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. Since the
Feb. 4 incident, the Pentagon has confirmed three
other “objects” have been shot down after entering U.S. and Canadian
airspace in the past week.
Comer noted that he’s
glad the Biden administration took it “more seriously with respect to the
balloons,” but he believes the nation is facing “a whole lot bigger” problem
from CCP surveillance.
“We’ve got a whole lot
bigger problem with China than the spy balloons,” he argued, explaining that
the communist regime’s military “continues to grow and expand.”
“They’re continuing
their Belt and Road Initiative all over the world
where they’re trying to create a dominant world economy. This is a problem for
the United States. And we need an administration to stand firm to China,” he
said.
On Feb. 12, the Pentagon
said that President Joe Biden acted on guidance from military officials to
shoot down an object flying near Lake Huron, Michigan, and also confirmed that
it had transited near sensitive military sites. That shootdown took place
after Comer’s ABC interview.
That downing of that
object—which was likely the same one that was picked up on radar in Montana on
Feb. 11—came after U.S. military planes downed two other objects on Feb. 10 and
Feb. 11. One object was shot down in northern Alaska, above the Arctic Circle,
while the other was shot down in the Yukon Territory of Canada, located
adjacent to Alaska.
Like the Lake Huron
incident, few details about those objects have been provided by the Pentagon so
far. There have been no updates about the recovery efforts for either as of
early on Feb. 13.
CCP
Surveillance ‘Not Limited to Balloons’
During the “This Week”
interview on Feb. 12, Comer also addressed an internal investigation that
revealed ByteDance—a Chinese company that owns TikTok—reportedly used the
corporation’s access to user data to improperly track unsuspecting Americans.
“TikTok executives
testified in Congress a year or two ago that none of the data that TikTok
collected ever left the United States. But what we’ve learned from—from whistle-blowers
and media accounts is some of that data did, in fact, go back to China and
that’s a concern,” he said.
“It’s a concern for
high-level people in the government because with that data, ByteDance can—can
tell where you are if you are using TikTok,” he added. “So, that would be a
concern if we continue to see escalation [between] China and the United States.
We certainly don’t want the Chinese bad guys to know where our public officials
are. And that’s why you’re seeing more state governments ban TikTok. And I
think that’s going to continue a trend.”
Bipartisan legislation to
ban the social media giant from the United States has recently gained momentum
in Congress following the incursion of the Chinese spy balloon.
Sen. Marco Rubio
(R-Fla.), who originally introduced the legislation in December, reintroduced
the bill, titled
“Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship
and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act,” or
“ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act,” with bipartisan support this month.
Rubio explained that it’s
vital that the United States works quickly to prevent the CCP from stealing
more Americans’ data and further undermining U.S. national security.
CCP law dictates that all
companies in China, including ByteDance, must make their data available to the
regime on request, and the company’s access to TikTok user data has sparked
significant security concerns.
Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
From NTD
News
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