Chairman Risch Gives Floor Remarks in Support of David Perdue to be Ambassador to China

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today gave the following remarks on the Senate floor in support of David Perdue’s confirmation to be ambassador to China.

Chairman Risch gave the following remarks:

“Mr. President, I come to the floor today in support of our friend David Perdue’s nomination to be ambassador to China.

“This is certainly one of the most important nominations that will come across this floor. The President is to be commended for picking David Purdue for this position.

“China, as we all know, is the largest, most significant, and longest lasting foreign policy challenge that the United States of America has – and it will continue to be for some time.

“Today, we’ve seen over the last recent decades China move from a third-world country to a near-peer to the United States. Its economy is growing rapidly, and it has done that the old-fashioned way: by stealing every good idea the U.S. has, and used it to its own devices.

“This has brought China to the challenging competitor they are for the United States, yet they are very different from us.

“The world, I think, is developing very quickly to a bipolar position where on the one hand you have democracies and semi-democracies. Like the United States, these countries are made up of free people, capitalism, and free markets made up of entrepreneurs. These are people who very much value human rights and the individual way ahead of the state.

“On the other hand you have countries, like China, that are communists, socialists, they do not have free markets or capitalism to motivate the people, and they have no regards for human rights.

“The best example of that is the genocide that they commit against the Uyghur Muslims in China, while the world pretty much looks the opposite way of these human rights abuses that are way over the top.

“So, Senator Perdue, David, you have your work cut out for you. This is going to be a challenge as we go forward – particularly over the next four years.

“In addition to that, China has done everything it can do to infiltrate the United States. Most people in America have no understanding about the tremendous amount and millions of dollars that the Chinese government pumps into our colleges and universities here in the United States.

“I, myself, and others have long been working to put a stop to this. No foreign government can come into our political system and use money to influence our political system. Yet, a foreign government, like China, can go into our colleges and universities and pump in millions of dollars and use that money to influence the institutions.

“We don’t allow this in our political system because we don’t want foreign influence in our political system, nor should we allow this kind of influence in our institutions that make up the education system.

“We need to put a stop to this, and all of us, I hope, will be glad to partner with our friend David Perdue as he confronts these issues from Beijing. In this administration and in his first term, President Trump demonstrated that he will be tough on China – he has to be.

“We need a strong leader like David Perdue at the forefront of our fight with the Chinese government to execute on President Trump’s vision.

“I hope my colleagues will join me today in supporting Mr. Perdue to be ambassador to China.”

These remarks have been lightly edited for clarity. Witness testimony is available on Youtube.com/SenatorJamesRisch

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