The Biden Administration failed to protect U.S. diplomats, stop China from financing Iran’s terror regime
WASHINGTON—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan, today received a commitment from former Senator David Perdue (R-GA), nominee to be U.S. Ambassador to China, to hold the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) accountable for unfair treatment of U.S. diplomats, and work to stop the CCP from financing Iran’s terror regime and its proxies.
“When I served as U.S. Ambassador to Japan, one of my top priorities was taking care of my staff and their families,” Hagerty said.
“If I think about what happened during Covid [in China], they put some of our [diplomatic] staff in containers, held them in isolation in moldy hotel rooms,” Hagerty continued. “They took stool samples from them, blood tests for them. I just think it’s totally egregious what took place.”
“If you receive reports of harassment or abuse, will you immediately report those not only to the Trump Administration, but to this committee, so that we can act upon it?” Hagerty asked.
“Absolutely,” Perdue confirmed.
Hagerty also questioned nominee Perdue about preventing the CCP from funding Iran’s terror regime, which the Biden Administration failed to do.
“As I’ve discussed many times in this committee, the Biden Administration’s non-enforcement of sanctions against Iran has provided that regime with over $100 billion that they have used, therefore, to go out into the Middle East and foment terror and insecurity,” Hagerty said. “President Trump intends to actually enforce sanctions against Iran, and last month, his Administration announced sanctions against the Chinese teapot oil refinery. That refinery was buying and refining hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian crude oil.”
“Some of this oil was even imported to China by ships linked to the Iranian-backed Houthi regime, the same terrorists that are attacking U.S. personnel, commercial vessels, and certainly our ally Israel,” Hagerty added. “This is yet another example of how Biden’s non-enforcement of sanctions funded the very problems we are spending billions to address right now.”
“Do you commit to conveying to the Chinese government, in the strongest possible terms, that the United States will not tolerate Chinese activities that finance Iran and its terrorist proxy groups, especially those terrorist groups that attacked the United States and its allies?” Hagerty asked.
“Of course,” Perdue answered.
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