NASHVILLE, TN—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, joined America Reports on Fox News to discuss reported Chinese surveillance stations within the United States and the need for the Biden Administration to push back against the Chinese Communist Party.
Partial Transcript
Hagerty on the Biden Administration emboldening Communist China: “It’s an incredible violation of the sovereignty of every nation where these stations may be located, John. It’s a deep concern. [FBI Director] Christopher Wray last week in the Senate hearing talked about this. There’s an investigation underway right here in the United States, but China has become so bold that they’re doing this on our own soil. It’s absolutely amazing. And at the same time, you know, the Biden Administration has been, you know, allowing this type of activity to occur. They’ve been so aggressive in the Taiwan Strait—China’s been so aggressive there. They’ve even had to scramble Japanese jets to fend off China warplanes coming into Okinawan airspace, where we have a massive U.S. military presence there. You’ve got, I think, a real concern when the China initiative at the Department of Justice that was launched back in 2018 to deal with precisely this type of spying, intellectual property theft, has been dropped by the Biden Administration. We need these types of powers and authorities now more than ever.”
Hagerty on Americans’ rights being invaded: “This is wholly unacceptable. I think [if] you ask any American, they certainly think this is wrong. It’s, again, an invasion of our own sovereignty, and anybody here who is of Chinese descent, again, their rights are being oppressed by the Chinese government on our soil. The Chinese Communist Party, again, [is] far too aggressive. The Biden Administration needs to step up and push back.”
Hagerty on the Biden Administration’s need to take action: “Indeed, and they [the State Department] certainly should [take action]. They have the ability to do this, and they should be lodging complaints with the Chinese government. Right now, I would be very interested to know what [President] Joe Biden had to say with President Xi when they met [in] Indonesia a week ago. Was this on the table? Was this one of the topics that they discussed? I certainly doubt it because after that meeting is when the Chinese Communist Party decided to go ahead and move more ships, more airplanes into the Taiwan Strait and again come into Okinawan airspace. It doesn’t seem that our pressure is working.”
Hagerty on the concern of China targeting Americans: “I think that’s the concern that you’re striking at right now, John, is a deep concern to all of us. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. Let’s hope the FBI and the DOJ step up, and let’s hope that this Biden Administration realizes the threat that it is and calls it out.”
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