Lawmakers typically seize every opportunity they can to boast about their accomplishments, especially when they’ve managed to actually pass a bill into law.
But in a 19-minute video Republicans released this month about the work of the House select committee on competition with China, the panel’s signature legislative achievement didn’t come up a single time. That accomplishment was a law to ban TikTok — a priority that President Donald Trump complicated by announcing his support for keeping TikTok available.
TikTok’s absence from the video raised eyebrows among people who work on China policy, and it illustrated why congressional Democrats fear that as Republican lawmakers seek to march in lockstep with Trump, they may not be as tough on China as they were in the last Congress.
“Trump is weak on China, and it’s abundantly apparent to everybody on the committee,” said Rep. Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat who serves on the select committee. “But you won’t find Republicans admitting it in public.”
Moulton told NOTUS in an interview that Republicans have shared concerns with him privately about how Trump’s decisions are affecting competition with China, but he said they are too “scared” to do so openly.
“When you spend time in the Pacific, every leader asks you: Are we going to support Ukraine?” Moulton said. Chinese leader Xi Jinping, he added, is “watching Putin’s every move and our every move in response, and he sees weakness and acquiescence from Donald Trump — and the most pathetic surrender of the entire Republican Party to the weak, isolationist foreign policy of Trump.”
It’s not rare for a Democrat to criticize Trump or Republican lawmakers. But the select committee has been a bipartisan bright spot in a tumultuous Congress — an intentional effort to present a united front against the Chinese government. GOP leaders of the panel have kept their Democratic colleagues in the loop on their plans, investigations and priorities, and staff members for the two parties have often worked together instead of seeing each other as the opposition.
Moulton told NOTUS that Rep. John Moolenaar, the Michigan Republican who chairs the select committee, is “strongly bipartisan, and he wants to do things in a collaborative way.”
“But if we are going to be effective as a committee, we have to lead on this issue,” Moulton said. “Not chitchat in the background, which feels like what we’re doing today. … There seems to be a lack of energy and momentum on the committee in general.”
In a statement to NOTUS, Moolenaar responded that his first priority is “addressing the growing strategic threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party. Recent actions by the Trump administration, including the January 20 trade executive order and NSPM-3, reinforce key priorities the committee has championed — such as expanding restrictions on outbound investment, strengthening CFIUS oversight, and holding China accountable for its unfair practices.”
“We will continue to work across party lines to advance critical initiatives, safeguard U.S. technological leadership, and ensure the U.S. is prepared to confront the challenges ahead,” he added. “My commitment to this committee’s bipartisan agenda is unwavering. We will remain focused on confronting the CCP’s growing influence, not partisan politics.”
Staff for the select committee have anonymously complained recently about a sense of stagnation. The panel doesn’t have legislative jurisdiction, instead offering recommendations for other committees to consider.
“The sheen is gone and the work is slowing down,” a select committee staffer told Politico in December.
The committee has often focused on investigations and messaging, pushing administration officials, American companies and U.S. colleges and universities to take firmer positions toward China.
Republicans on the panel “used the bully pulpit to drive the Biden administration into a harder-line posture on a range of things,” in the last Congress, a longtime GOP China policy hand, who asked to speak anonymously so they could be frank, told NOTUS. “My outstanding question is whether or not they’re going to give the same kind of treatment to this administration,” they said.
China hawks have been alarmed by Trump’s skepticism of Ukraine as it defends itself against Russia, as well as his freeze on foreign aid, which has halted funding to many pro-democracy human rights organizations led by Chinese dissidents. Others have slammed Secretary of State Marco Rubio for appointing MAGA ideologue Darren Beattie, who has repeatedly praised China’s tactics and denied human rights abuses in Xinjiang, to a senior State Department role.
Republicans largely haven’t been willing to push back on those moves or Elon Musk’s position in Trump’s orbit. Moolenaar described the foreign aid freeze as an opportunity to innovate and come up with new ideas for America’s soft power, and he dismissed a question from NOTUS about Musk’s conflicts of interest. The select committee has not responded to requests for comment on Beattie’s appointment or his claim that white people in the U.S. are treated worse than Uyghurs in China.
If Republicans don’t start urging Trump to take stricter positions against China soon, other Democrats on the select committee may feel the need to become more vocal.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the select committee, struck a more diplomatic tone than Moulton during an interview with NOTUS, but didn’t sound entirely confident when asked if he believes Republicans will press Trump to be tough on China.
After a pause, Krishnamoorthi responded: “I hope so.”
“I’m going to continue to speak out however I can with regard to these issues, while trying to leave open the possibility of bipartisan cooperation,” he said.
“We have an opportunity through the committee to offer bipartisan collaboration on these issues, and I hope that my Republican colleagues will take that opportunity. Because we’re talking about initiatives that take years to bear fruit,” Krishnamoorthi told NOTUS. “When you stop-and-start, or fail to take action, you’re all of a sudden putting the progress that has already happened in jeopardy and then further endangering future efforts.”
Krishnamoorthi said he is concerned that Congress still hasn’t passed export restrictions to prevent American firms from investing in sensitive sectors in China.
GOP leaders included a bill to do just that in a spending package in December, but Musk, whose businesses would likely have been affected by the law, helped kill the legislation. The bill’s supporters have had to mostly start from scratch, trying to find a new path to pass the outbound investment restrictions.
The select committee has only held one hearing this Congress, where members mostly focused on Chinese cyber attacks and avoided the kind of partisan sniping that characterizes other congressional hearings.
While that kind of unity and cooperation across the aisle can help in a great power competition, Moulton fears it isn’t meeting the moment with enough urgency.
“Republicans are subservient to Trump,” Moulton said, “and Democrats don’t seem to know what to do.”
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Haley Byrd Wilt is a reporter at NOTUS.