GOP Rep. Beth Van Duyne, Panelists Lay Out Key Race Against China At Daily Caller Event

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A Texas Congresswoman and two other policy experts explained how America is in a race against China on the energy and supply chain front while appearing at a “Daily Caller Live” event Tuesday.

Texas Republican Rep. Beth Van Duyne joined Gabriella Hoffman, director of the Independent Women’s Center for Energy and Conservation, and Emily de La Bruyere, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), at “Daily Caller Live,” presented by the American Chemistry Council. Duyne, de La Bruyere and Hoffman spoke on supply chains, energy inputs and U.S. competitiveness. (RELATED: China’s New ‘Trojan Horse’ In London: A Warning Shot For The West)

The panelists explained that China is a much bigger threat back home than Americans realize.

“China’s playing the long game, and we don’t get it,” Van Duyne said at the event, speaking about how the COVID-19 pandemic revealed how reliant we are on the country for pharmaceuticals, components for phones, cars and chips.

“Even under the Biden administration, where we saw with the Green New Deal, who were they benefiting? China. Almost directly. They were forcing U.S. citizens, U.S. companies, to be able to purchase solar. Where was that being manufactured? China. Our own policies were working against us in benefiting the one country that, to your point long game is really wanting to own us,” Van Duyne continued.

Daily Caller White House correspondent Reagan Reese asked de La Bruyere, an expert in U.S.-China policy, to detail how China poses a threat to the United States and to assess China’s overall strength. 

“[China’s] threat isn’t a military power that’s going to pose like a direct military threat to the United States. What China is trying to do is to control the world,” de La Bruyere explained.

“Including the United States, and to do so through largely non-military means, control value chains, and therefore control production, control transportation networks, and therefore control movement, control markets, and therefore control economies,” she added.

De La Bruyere added that the U.S. can compete with China by letting the markets work, but cautioned that the hostile nation is much stronger than many might anticipate. 

“If we let markets work, maybe we can [compete with China]. If we let markets work while defending against China, distorting those markets, we absolutely can, which is what is being adopted right now in the current political moment. But it’s a much bigger challenge, I think, than is broadly recognized,” she said.

Hoffman pointed to the issues with relying on China and noted the country is largely dependent on coal.

“There are a lot of security threats with relying on this technology from a country that is still dependent on coal, and we’re told to get rid of our coal and our natural gas, but China can go ahead and do it, and they’re secure, but we’re not secure. So the Trump administration has thankfully recalibrated and said, yes, we can have these reliable sources and not try to be dependent on these nefarious countries,” Hoffman said.

This event was a part of the Daily Caller’s USA 250 series. Learn more about future events here.