A week into its inauguration, the new Biden administration has continued to send out messages to the outside world that the new administration may continue the former Trump administration’s hard line against the Chinese Communist Party. But so far, the unclear answers given by current and expected incoming officials on specific questions about whether they will continue some of the former administration’s major policies toward the Communist Party of China have frustrated some Republicans and even caused some to wonder whether the Biden Administration will actually take firm measures to address the various threats and challenges from the Chinese Communist Party.
The former Trump Administration had taken a series of restrictive measures against Chinese telecommunications giant huawei on national security grounds, including placing it on the Commerce Department’s list of entities in 2019 to limit the company’s access to key technologies and products from the United States.
White House spokeswoman Sachie (AFP, January 22, 2021)
White House spokeswoman Sachie was asked at a press conference on Monday (January 25, 2021) whether the new Biden administration would continue its restrictive policy against Huawei. She did not give a direct answer, but said, “We have to play better defense, and that has to include holding the Chinese Communist Party accountable for its unfair and illegal actions and making sure that U.S. technology does not facilitate the Communist Party’s military buildup.”
Credit: Gina Raimondo was nominated by President Biden to be secretary of commerce. (Jan. 8, 2021)
The next day, Biden’s Commerce Secretary pick, Gina Raimondo, appeared before the Congressional Senate Commerce Committee for a hearing to approve her for office. Republican Senator Ted Cruz asked Raimondo at the meeting if she could commit to continuing to include Huawei on the Commerce Department’s list of entities, but Raimondo did not make that commitment directly, saying she would make a decision in the interest of the United States after understanding and consulting.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Republican McCaul (media syndication photo)
On Wednesday, McCaul, the Republican leader of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued a statement urging his Senate colleagues to hold off on approving Raimondo as commerce secretary until the Biden administration indicates whether it will keep Huawei on the Commerce Department’s list of entities.
McCaul said, “The Biden administration’s refusal to commit to keeping Huawei on the Commerce Department’s list of entities raises a great deal of alarm. Huawei is not a normal telecommunications company. It is a communist military company that jeopardizes the security of our nation’s 5G mobile communications systems, steals U.S. intellectual property, and supports the Chinese Communist Party’s genocidal actions in Xinjiang and human rights abuses across China.”
Linda Thomas Greenfield, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, to Testify Before Congress on January 27, 2021
Secretary of State John Blinken, who takes office Tuesday, had expressed agreement with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo‘s determination that the Chinese Communist regime committed genocide in Xinjiang during a Senate hearing last week to approve his assumption of office. But Linda Thomas Greenfield, Biden’s nominee to be U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, added Wednesday that the State Department is evaluating that determination made by the former Trump administration.
Biden’s Secretary of State pick Anthony Blinken (D-Mass.) questioned before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee on Jan. 19, 2021
At a State Department press conference Wednesday, a reporter asked Blinken if this indicates a divide within the Biden administration over whether to find the Chinese Communist regime guilty of genocide in Xinjiang. Blinken said, “My view remains that there was a genocide committed against the Uighur people, and that view has not changed.”
Trump has issued several executive orders during his administration saying Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, ByteTok, the parent company of mobile application TikTok, the overseas version of Jitterbug, and Tencent, which owns WeChat, were able to obtain and deliver information and data on American people and institutions to Beijing, endangering U.S. national security, and ordering the U.S. Commerce Department to impose sanctions and restrictions against those companies.
Asked earlier this week whether the new administration would continue the policies in question, a State Department spokeswoman said, “We need a comprehensive strategy, a more systematic approach that does address the full range of issues rather than the piecemeal approach that we’ve taken over the last several years.”
A week into its inauguration, the new Biden administration has continued to send out messages to the outside world that the new administration may continue the former Trump administration’s hard line against the Chinese Communist Party. But so far, the unclear answers given by current and expected incoming officials on specific questions about whether they will continue some of the former administration’s major policies toward the Communist Party of China have frustrated some Republicans and even caused some to wonder whether the Biden administration will actually take firm measures to address the various threats and challenges from the Chinese Communist Party.
The former Trump administration had taken a series of restrictive measures against Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei on national security grounds, including placing it on the Commerce Department’s list of entities in 2019 to limit the company’s access to key technologies and products from the United States.
White House spokeswoman Sachie (AFP, January 22, 2021)
White House spokeswoman Sachie was asked at a press conference on Monday (January 25, 2021) whether the new Biden administration would continue its restrictive policy against Huawei. She did not give a direct answer, but said, “We have to play better defense, and that has to include holding the Chinese Communist Party accountable for its unfair and illegal actions and making sure that U.S. technology does not facilitate the Communist Party’s military buildup.”
Credit: Gina Raimondo was nominated by President Biden to be secretary of commerce. (Jan. 8, 2021)
The next day, Biden’s Commerce Secretary pick, Gina Raimondo, appeared before the Congressional Senate Commerce Committee for a hearing to approve her for office. Republican Senator Ted Cruz asked Raimondo at the meeting if she could commit to continuing to include Huawei on the Commerce Department’s list of entities, but Raimondo did not make that commitment directly, saying she would make a decision in the interest of the United States after understanding and consulting.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Republican McCaul (media syndication photo)
On Wednesday, McCaul, the Republican leader of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued a statement urging his Senate colleagues to hold off on approving Raimondo as commerce secretary until the Biden administration indicates whether it will keep Huawei on the Commerce Department’s list of entities.
McCaul said, “The Biden administration’s refusal to commit to keeping Huawei on the Commerce Department’s list of entities raises a great deal of alarm. Huawei is not a normal telecommunications company. It is a communist military company that jeopardizes the security of our nation’s 5G mobile communications systems, steals U.S. intellectual property, and supports the Chinese Communist Party’s genocidal actions in Xinjiang and human rights abuses across China.”
Linda Thomas Greenfield, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, to Testify Before Congress on January 27, 2021
Secretary of State John Blinken, who takes office Tuesday, had expressed agreement with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s determination that the Chinese Communist regime committed genocide in Xinjiang during a Senate hearing last week to approve his assumption of office. But Linda Thomas Greenfield, Biden’s nominee to be U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, added Wednesday that the State Department is evaluating that determination made by the former Trump administration.
Biden’s Secretary of State pick Anthony Blinken (D-Mass.) questioned before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee on Jan. 19, 2021
At a State Department press conference Wednesday, a reporter asked Blinken if this indicates a divide within the Biden administration over whether to find the Chinese Communist regime guilty of genocide in Xinjiang. Blinken said, “My view remains that there was a genocide committed against the Uighur people, and that view has not changed.”
Trump has issued several executive orders during his administration saying Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, ByteTok, the parent company of mobile application TikTok, the overseas version of Jitterbug, and Tencent, which owns WeChat, were able to obtain and deliver information and data on American people and institutions to Beijing, endangering U.S. national security, and ordering the U.S. Commerce Department to impose sanctions and restrictions against those companies.
Asked earlier this week whether the new administration would continue the policies in question, a State Department spokeswoman said, “We need a comprehensive strategy, a more systematic approach that does address the full range of issues rather than the piecemeal approach that we’ve taken over the last several years.”
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