House panel demands US 'stop digging our own grave,' detach from China

WASHINGTON - The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party called on American companies and lawmakers Tuesday to ditch the decades-old strategy of playing nice with China economically, issuing 150 recommendations aimed at making America less reliant on its top adversary. "Addressing this novel contest will require a fundamental reevaluation of US policy towards economic engagement with [China.]". For more than 20 years, the US has employed a strategy of "Robust economic engagement" in the hopes that the CCP would "Open its economy and financial markets and in turn to liberalize its political system and abide by the rule of law," the report said. "To quote Dr. Eric Schmidt's remarks at [a] Select Committee hearing 'it's never too late to stop digging our own grave.'". The committee has made numerous inquiries into China's use of American technology against the US - particularly after discovering that Beijing had relied in part on accessing or exploiting US intellectual property to spy on Americans from its surveillance base in Cuba. The committee called for addressing the issue in separate legislation that would "Force divestment of or ban foreign adversary-controlled social media platforms like TikTok" from the US. Additionally, the report also focuses its recommendations on supporting American innovation in technology and science - with the goal to keep the US competitive with a rapidly advancing China. The committee's main prerogative with the report is to support investment inside the US to allow the nation to break free from its widespread economic reliance on China. Held in New York with military experts and commercial and financial executives, the exercise simulated ways the US could respond economically and financially should China invade Taiwan.