Avril Haines, the incoming nominee for director of national intelligence in the Biden administration, told a Senate hearing Tuesday that the United States must continue to gather intelligence on China to counter the improper behavior of Beijing authorities. She also noted that while the U.S. and China should cooperate with each other in some areas, China has become a “foreign adversary” in other areas.
Will continue to counter the egregious behavior of the Chinese Communist Party
U.S. Director of National Intelligence nominee Avril Haynes told the Senate Intelligence Committee during her nomination confirmation hearing that she will continue the strict scrutiny of the Chinese Communist Party and take countermeasures wherever possible.
“We should provide the intelligence necessary to support the long-term bipartisan effort to defeat the Chinese Communist Party. While obtaining and sharing information about the CCP’s intentions and capabilities, we will also support more urgent actions to counter unfair, illegal, aggressive and coercive practices by the Beijing authorities and oppose their human rights abuses wherever possible.”
To counter Beijing’s human rights crackdown on Muslims in Xinjiang, China’s strategy of integrated civil-military development and the global reach of Chinese tech giants, Washington has recently pulled the plug on a number of Chinese companies in quick succession, barring the U.S. from selling technology and equipment or investing in them.
Asked if she had any ties to any Chinese entities, Haynes said at the meeting that she has never served as an advisor to a company doing business in Xinjiang, never served as an advisor to a company that the U.S. Department of Defense has identified as being supported by the Chinese Communist Party military, and never served as an advisor to any company on the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Export Control “Entity List.
Served in various government departments
In 2010, she became Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and Legal Adviser to the White House, and in 2013, Obama nominated her as Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, making Haynes the first woman to hold that position. In 2015, Haynes returned to the White House as deputy national security adviser.
Haynes was careful to define China’s role at Tuesday’s hearing. She said China is indeed a competitor in some areas, but should be seen as a partner in others.
“On some issues, China is a competitor. But on other issues like climate change, we’ll try to work with China …… but I don’t think that in any way diminishes the fact that the Chinese Communist Party is a rival in terms of espionage.”
In addition to concerns about Haynes’ stance on China, questions have been raised about her previous professional behavior. Some human rights groups have argued that Haynes played a major role in the use of drones to kill terrorists overseas during the Obama administration, during which those operations also killed some civilians, in violation of international law. But her supporters have defended her, saying Haynes helped take steps to put limits on the government’s use of force and brought greater transparency to the drone program.
Avril Haines, nominated to be U.S. director of national intelligence
China’s challenge is no longer the same
Compared to most senior U.S. intelligence officials, Haines has had an unusual career trajectory. She majored in physics when she attended the University of Chicago in 1988 and worked part-time at a local auto body store. She began learning to fly airplanes a few years later, and her instructor became her future husband. Soon after, Haynes bought a previously seized bar in Baltimore and turned it into a bookstore-cum-cafe. There, she was introduced to community work, and in 1998, she enrolled at Georgetown University Law Center, where she began to delve into international law.
Haynes similarly believes that the Chinese Communist Party poses an unparalleled threat to the United States today.
“I believe the United States needs to adjust its policy toward China to better deal with an overconfident and belligerent China today. The Chinese Communist Party poses a challenge to the United States on multiple fronts, including national security, economic prosperity and values.”
Hearings on President-elect Biden’s cabinet nominees were not held until recently due to the fact that many U.S. lawmakers had previously questioned the results of the presidential election and the delay in getting control of the Senate confirmed. If this nomination passes, Haynes will become the first female director of national intelligence in the United States, in charge of up to eighteen intelligence agencies.
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