China's Continued Deception

The Chinese government continues to stall all international efforts to find the origin of the coronavirus. In January, Chinese officials said they were zeroing in on the source of the outbreak and that it was "only a matter of time" before it was identified. Now, nearly four months later, no new information has come out of China and the country is rejecting all calls for an international investigation. From the start, China has tried to shield its communist government from any responsibility for the coronavirus pandemic they've caused. First, they claimed that the virus was brought to Wuhan by U.S. soldiers, which has been dismissed as pure fiction by scientists and the rest of the international community. Now, it appears they have spent more time destroying evidence than sharing their scientific findings. Perhaps that is why they have continued to look to the United States for answers, most recently without our permission.

Just this week, in a stunning move, U.S. investigators released a statement detailing how Chinese hackers have been targeting American universities, pharmaceutical, and other health-care organizations to steal intellectual property related to coronavirus treatments and vaccines. They concluded that "the potential theft of this information jeopardizes the delivery of secure, effective, and efficient treatment options." Unfortunately, this is just the latest action by China during this crisis that threatens the health and safety of the American people. China's desperation to find an actual cure to this disease has gotten so bad they are now undermining their own claims of self-sufficiency. Instead of relying on their own "experts" to find a solution to the problem they've created, they've resorted to something they've done for years: steal from the genius of American innovation. This desperate act proves to the world that China's counterfeit achievements will never beat America's authentic innovation, growth, and development.

Thankfully, unlike previous administrations that turned a blind eye towards China, President Trump has been committed to holding the communist regime accountable for their deception and destruction. When China threatened to stop shipping medical supplies to the United States, President Trump continued to stand strong. He invoked the Defense Production Act to ensure ventilators, masks, and other crucial supplies were being produced in America. He also brought China back to the negotiating table, securing a deal to rebalance our trading relationship that includes $80 billion in U.S. agriculture purchases over two years, a major victory for farmers in southern Missouri. This week, to support the President's efforts and our farmers in southern Missouri, I led lawmakers on the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee in calling for China to comply with their agricultural purchases agreed to in the Phase One agreement. The Ways and Means Committee is the only committee in the U.S. House of Representatives that has oversight of our nation's trade policies, and I have used my position on the full committee and its trade subcommittee to be actively involved in advising the Trump Administration on these negotiations.

Yet, while I've been working with the Trump Administration to strengthen America's position against China, Speaker Pelosi refused to join us and instead wasted months on fabricated investigations to impeach Donald Trump. Now, given another opportunity to hold China accountable, she has decided to hold a vote on her $3 trillion wish list legislation that has no chance of becoming law. Worse, instead of including pro-growth policies to help hardworking families get back on the path to achieving the American Dream and reopening the country, she stuffed her bill full of proposals to stifle innovation and grow the government's control of people's lives. She's wasting tens of millions of dollars alone on a pointless study investigating global warming's impact on the coronavirus. Whether it's expanding unemployment benefits to keep people from returning to work, propping up failed Obamacare policies, allowing the federal government to permanently control all elections, or providing a get-out-of-jail-free card for convicts, this bill undermines the values of the people of southern Missouri who respect the individual rights and freedoms that the United States was founded upon and of which our Constitution and the Bill of Rights safeguard.

In southern Missouri, we protect the individual's ability to decide their own destiny and their ability to work hard to make a future. Unfortunately, while these used to be timeless values that were shared by all Americans, the radical Left in this country has sought to undermine the American people's faith in our unalienable rights given to us by God. Whether it's working with the Trump Administration to hold China accountable or working against the Establishment and liberals in the U.S. Congress, I'm honored to be fighting for limited government and our individual liberty to allow southern Missouri families to control their own destiny. I'm proud and glad to live in a state that still cherishes and honors those sacred values.