Top US House Republican Kevin McCarthy vows a hard line on China
- McCarthy said he would form a select committee on China if he is elected speaker of the chamber, accusing the Biden administration of not standing up to Beijing
- ‘We will no longer allow the administration to sit back and let China do what they are doing to America,’ ‘McCarthy said
The US House of Representatives may form a new panel focused solely on Beijing in the Republican-controlled Congress that begins in January, the Republican Party’s top House lawmaker said on Sunday.
“When I become speaker, I’m going to have a select committee on China,” California representative Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, said in an interview on Fox News.
He vowed to “no longer allow the administration to sit back and let China do what they are doing to America”.
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The comments were the latest sign of the added pressure from Congress that US President Joe Biden will face to take a hard line on Beijing beginning in January, when the new class of lawmakers is sworn in.
Nearly two weeks after the US midterm elections, Republicans have so far narrowly clinched control of the House for the upcoming Congress by one seat, but the final size of their majority remains unclear with five races still too close to call. Democrats retained control of the Senate.
McCarthy is vying to become the next Speaker of the House, and to do so, he would need 218 votes from House lawmakers – one more than half of the chamber’s 435 representatives.
It is currently unclear if McCarthy will have sufficient support among Republicans to claim the Speaker’s gavel. In an internal party vote last week, Republican House lawmakers voted 188-31 to make him their party’s nominee for Speaker, according to Reuters.
