Hearing on
“China’s Propaganda and Influence Operations, Its Intelligence Activities that Target the United States, and the Resulting Impacts on U.S. National Security”
Thursday, April 30th, 2009
Russell Senate Office Building
Opening Statement of Commissioner William A. Reinsch
Good morning, everyone. On behalf of our Chairwoman for this year, Ms. Carolyn Bartholomew, our Vice-Chairman, Dr. Larry Wortzel, and all of the other members of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, I would like to welcome you to this hearing, the fourth hearing held by the Commission this year to examine issues related to our statutory mandate from Congress. Today’s hearing will examine issues related to the Chinese government’s propaganda directed at foreign audiences, its alleged efforts to exert influence over U.S. institutions and U.S. public opinion, and its espionage and cyber-espionage activities directed against the United States.
Many issues related to these topics have been significant points of controversy in recent years. For example, are the reported plans of the Chinese government to substantially increase its news coverage and publicity efforts directed at foreign audiences a cause for any concern in the United States, or do these efforts represent benign public diplomacy efforts of the type used by nearly all governments? Does the Chinese government seek undue influence over academics and other shapers of opinion in the United States by the employment of personal pressure? What is the extent to which Chinese intelligence operations target controlled technologies and restricted information, and to what extent do such efforts affect U.S. national security and our future economic competiveness? It is our hope that this hearing will help to shed more light on some of these debates, and help to better inform the Commission as we prepare our annual report to Congress to be released later this year.
We are joined today by a number of expert witnesses who will help us further explore these issues. They include esteemed academic authorities on Chinese politics and propaganda, national security experts from the defense consulting community, a retired agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and expert researchers in the field of cyber security. We welcome their presence with us today, and we look forward to hearing their views on these controversial issues.
With that, I’ll turn the floor over to my colleague and co-chair for this hearing, Commissioner Peter Brookes.