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WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 (PTI) US Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi said on Wednesday that the Chinese Communist Party has become a “hostile entity” to many countries and their own people.
The challenge, he noted, is to make clear to the Chinese Communist Party that its repeated violations of international law and the sovereignty of others are unacceptable.
Days after U.S. fighter jets shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken claimed that China had not only “violated” the sovereignty of the United States, but also “violated the sovereignty of countries on five continents.”
The balloon was shot down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday. It circled over the American continent for several days after entering U.S. airspace over Montana on Jan. 30.
China admits the balloon is theirs but denies it was used for surveillance purposes rather than weather monitoring and that it has gone off course.
“We cannot tolerate this situation. We must ensure that we continue to send a clear message to (the CCP) while preparing for and deterring aggression,” Krishnamursi told PTI shortly after the first meeting of the newly formed House committee. China, of which he is a senior member.
The China Commission was established by Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to study the economic, technological and security challenges the Chinese Communist Party poses to the United States and how to address them.
Krishnamoorthi, 49, represents Illinois’ 8th District. As a senior member of the powerful China Committee and a member of the House Select Intelligence Committee, the Indian-American has emerged as one of the powerful Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. Congress.
For the first time ever, an Indian-American has been appointed as a senior member or chair of a committee, standing committee or special committee of the House or Senate. “I am honored to have accepted this special assignment,” he said.
“The Chinese Communist Party has become a hostile entity to many countries and people. I view it as hostile to its own people because it continues to suppress human rights (and) dissent,” Krishnamurthy said.
In their first meeting here on Wednesday, members of the House China Committee got to know each other and got an overview of their next steps. “I think we’re going to take the appropriate pace in terms of hearings, briefings and other activities to make sure we can accomplish our mission,” Krishnamoorthi said.
Responding to a question about the Chinese surveillance balloon that was shot down by the US last Saturday, Krishnamurthy said it shows the threat and challenge posed by the Chinese Communist Party.
“The threat is that they do surveillance all over the world and, of course, in the United States, they do it blatantly, violating the sovereignty of the United States, and everybody in the world can see that,” he said.
“The challenge is how do we draw the red line? How do we show the Chinese Communist Party that this behavior is unacceptable and correct their course.
“We’ve seen what they’ve done in their own neighbours, throwing an elbow at Taiwan, throwing an elbow at the South China Sea, throwing an elbow at India. We can’t tolerate that,” Krishnamurthy said. explain.
He acknowledged that U.S.-China relations were “a bit tense” and hoped to ease. “But to do that, the Chinese Communist Party needs to reduce its rhetoric, reduce its activities, and start adhering to more agreements and laws based on international rules. This is very important moving forward,” he asserted.
According to Krishnamoorthi, the Quad – the combination of Australia, India, Japan and the US – is important for regional security and regional partnerships.
“But we must also work in other ways, such as bilaterally, to ensure that our partners, friends and allies in the region have the ability to adequately protect themselves from the Chinese threat,” he said.
“I think it’s very important that these different entities be able to deter aggression. For example, we don’t want to see what happened in Ukraine happen to Taiwan. We can no longer criminally invade another country and blatantly violate its sovereignty and then all the massive destruction that comes,” the Indian-American congressman said.
He said that India has done a lot to deal with the Chinese challenge.
“I think the Biden administration should continue to encourage India and all members of the quartet and other regional partners to prepare for the moment when we have to stop aggression. That’s the most important thing,” Krishnamurthy said.
“You can’t react the moment it happens and expect some kind of miraculous recovery from years of inaction. So, it’s really important to do two things right now.
“One is preparedness, which means making the necessary reforms to have the defensive and economic infrastructure in place to withstand aggression by China or the CCP. The other is making sure that it unifies the country in any way possible to meet the challenge,” he added. PTI / LKJ
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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