Comer on Fox News: Here’s What Too Many Federal Agencies Don’t Understand About the Chinese Communist Party

WASHINGTON—In an op-ed published in Fox News today, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) outlined how the Oversight Committee is demanding answers from federal agencies who do not address the political warfare perpetrated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that is infiltrating every sector of the United States. The Committee’s government-wide investigation has brought federal agencies in to answer for their responses and has found too much of the Washington bureaucracy is incapable or unwilling to address the CCP threat. The Oversight Committee will hold a hearing on, “Defending America from the Chinese Communist Party’s Political Warfare, Part II,” today at 10am ET.

“The House Oversight Committee is demanding answers from federal agencies that do not—or will not—address the CCP threat head-on, sometimes because agencies themselves have succumbed to CCP influence methods,” wrote Chairman Comer. “For decades, the CCP has waged an aggressive campaign intended to hobble America through political warfare, an insidious strategy to weaken our way of life without firing a shot. The Committee’s government-wide investigation has brought federal agencies in to answer for their tepid responses and has found too much of the Washington bureaucracy is incapable or unwilling to address the CCP threat.”

“There will be no ‘shot heard round the world’ in a war against the CCP. The creeping political warfare has already begun, and federal agencies must first acknowledge that we are in a new Cold War,” continued Chairman Comer. “Federal agencies must wake up to the CCP threat by engaging with and inspiring Americans to push back against infiltration and influence.”

Here’s what too many federal agencies don’t understand about the Chinese Communist Party

Americans recognize the Chinese Communist Party as a serious threat to our country. But many corners of the federal government do not want to talk about Communist China. When they do acknowledge it, they censor themselves by relying on neutral (or “country agnostic”) strategies to avoid the elephant in the room: China is our most dangerous adversary and will use every tactic at its disposal to weaken America. 

The House Oversight Committee is demanding answers from federal agencies that do not—or will not—address the CCP threat head-on, sometimes because agencies themselves have succumbed to CCP influence methods. 

For decades, the CCP has waged an aggressive campaign intended to hobble America through political warfare, an insidious strategy to weaken our way of life without firing a shot. The Committee’s government-wide investigation has brought federal agencies in to answer for their tepid responses and has found too much of the Washington bureaucracy is incapable or unwilling to address the CCP threat.

For example, the NASA Administrator recently congratulated the CCP for obtaining the first samples of lunar rocks from the far side of the moon, gushing that the discovery was “an important step in humanity’s work to understand and explore the lunar surface.” This statement demonstrates a profound naivety regarding China’s goals in space, which are inextricably intertwined with the CCP’s militaristic ambitions.  

Much of the American government seems to have forgotten that its purpose is to promote the interests of Americans. Indeed, the Space Race that prompted the creation of NASA would not have been a much of a race at all if American leaders at the time had heaped laurels upon an adversary that has named America its “chief enemy.” America would not have won the first Cold War if our leaders refused to openly identify Soviet efforts to infiltrate and destroy America. 

Certain agencies have shown signs of life. The National Science Foundation warned the Committee that 90 percent of research security concerns involving all U.S. federally funded research originates in China. This kind of honest recognition of CCP political warfare should be emulated across the federal government. But even NSF continues to use “neutral” approaches to counter this threat, hamstringing themselves from valuable China expertise in an attempt to not ruffle CCP feathers.

Similarly, the Consumer Product Safety Commission told the Committee that of 75 percent of the shipments it identified as high-risk last year, 83 percent had China as the country of origin. Yet CPSC rejected the Committee’s suggestion the agency should warn American consumers about the unique dangers of Chinese-made products. CPSC should urge and help Americans discern when it is prudent to purchase goods manufactured in China. That is, after all, consistent with the entire purpose of its existence.  

Federal agencies’ willful blindness to CCP political warfare—evident in leaders’ messaging about it and strategy to counter it—may be a function of CCP influence itself. The Department of Justice’s shuttering of the China Initiative in 2022—after DOJ found no merit to charges that cases brought under the initiative were racially motivated—is an embarrassment to the sole agency responsible for enforcing our country’s national security laws. 

DOJ refuses to say whether it has investigated the origins of what it found to be unsubstantiated claims of racial bias in China Initiative cases. DOJ’s evasiveness is significant. DOJ acknowledges the CCP uses “wedge narratives” that push racially divisive agendas intended to divide Americans from all backgrounds. But DOJ itself appears to have been influenced to stop prioritizing cases against the CCP.

There will be no “shot heard round the world” in a war against the CCP. The creeping political warfare has already begun, and federal agencies must first acknowledge that we are in a new Cold War. The enemy is an authoritarian regime that, among other atrocities, enslaves its own people and has killed tens of thousands of Americans each year indirectly through its central role in the fentanyl crisis corroding our country, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. The DEA is one of the few agencies that seems willing to confront the CCP threat directly as it messages candidly about deadly fentanyl precursors originating in China, the role Chinese transnational criminal organizations play in trafficking, and China’s surpassing the Mexican cartels in money laundering.

Federal agencies must wake up to the CCP threat by engaging with and inspiring Americans to push back against infiltration and influence. The good news is that, in many ways, the American people are better prepared for the confrontation than their own government, because they have maintained what seems to have been lost in Washington, D.C.: pride in themselves and their country. The Oversight Committee expects no less from the American government.

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) is Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.