With the world’s attention focused on Beijing’s meddling in the affairs of foreign nations and on tensions in an increasingly adversarial relationship between China and the United States, a panel of witnesses with expertise in diplomacy, trade, and national security presented a range of views on how best to counter the Chinese threat and safeguard American interests.
The Feb. 7 hearing took place just days after the U.S. military shot down a Chinese balloon believed to have penetrated American airspace for espionage, and the international incident came up frequently during testimony.
Entitled “Combatting the Economic Threat From China,” the hearing featured testimony from a wide range of experts including Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.); Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.), the new chair of the House Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions; Clete Willems, a partner at the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and a special assistant to the president for international trade, investment, and development during the Donald Trump administration; Tom Feddo, founder and director of The Rubicon Advisors LLC; Eric Lorber, principal of the Cyber, Risk & Regulatory practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers and a senior advisor to the undersecretary of state for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence during the Trump administration; and Rich Ashooh, corporate vice president for global trade and government affairs at the Lam Research Corporation….