The head of a powerful US Congressional Committee on Thursday delivered a scathing assessment of Beijing’s role in the Ukraine conflict, asserting that China is actively bankrolling Russia’s war machine and deliberately seeking to weaken the US by bolstering its global adversaries.
This strategy, Congressman John Moolenaar (R-MI) warns, is forging a “dangerous new Axis” with Iran and North Korea.
Speaking at a Washington-based Hudson Institute event, Moolenaar, chairman of the influential House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), confirmed reports detailing how the touted “no-limits friendship, no-limits partnership” between Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin is translating into hard cash and vital supplies for the invasion of Ukraine.
The Chairman was emphatic: “Russia would not be prosecuting that war were it not for China propping them up with all sorts of resources.”
He noted that while Beijing may claim they’re “not involved in the conflict,” “every bit of information we get is they’re supplying dual-use materials that benefit Russia. They’re buying the Russian energy.” Moolenaar stressed that these actions make it “appropriate for there to be consequences.”
Moolenaar’s assessment frames this explicit support for Moscow as part of a strategic pivot by Beijing to actively undermine Western security.
The CCP, he argued, is not only funding the war but also “bolstering Iran’s military capabilities, and deepening engagement with North Korea” in a coordinated bid for greater global influence.
He pointed to the visual evidence, concluding that “These photo ops with [Vladimir] Putin, Kim Jong Un, the Iranian leadership... really show the heart and the direction they’re going.”
Furthermore, the Congressman also criticized European policy toward China. Moolenaar stated he was bothered by French President Emmanuel Macron “talking about how the situation in Ukraine was so concerning that he thought at some point, they might even have to send French troops to defend democracy in Ukraine. And then a week later, he turns around and goes and cozies up to Xi Jinping.”
This “disconnect” proves “China is not a benign actor,” Moolenaar asserted.
New Sputnik moment
The geopolitical confrontation, Moolenaar argued, transcends mere trade disputes; it is a battle for the very “rules and values that govern the modern world.”
He issued a dire warning that America’s long-held strategy of engagement has utterly failed. “Engagement has not moderated the CCP. It has emboldened it.”
Consequently, Moolenaar and the Committee are now pushing for a revolutionary approach to US foreign and technology policy.
The most aggressive proposed policy shifts target the technological front. Moolenaar is specifically pushing for a revolutionary approach to US chip exports aimed at permanently crippling China’s domestic AI ambitions.
He criticized the current “US-minus strategy”– which measures allowable chip sales based on what is slightly worse than the best US technology – as “backwards.”
In its place, he proposed a “China-plus strategy” built on a Rolling Technical Threshold (RTT).
This RTT is designed to ensure the US never hands its strategic adversary a shortcut: under this plan, the export line would be set just “slightly above China’s indigenous ability” to produce advanced chips at scale, and the total computing power available to the Chinese market would be capped at “10 percent of the US total.”
The overarching goal, he stressed, is to keep China “perpetually dependent” on US design, software, and manufacturing know-how, ensuring its technological capabilities “never catch up to ours.”
Threats at home and abroad
Beyond the strategic contest for AI dominance, the Chairman highlighted several critical vulnerabilities China is actively exploiting on US soil.
Regarding TikTok, Moolenaar warned that the key concern in the divestiture talks is not ownership, but who controls the algorithm, arguing that a foreign adversary should not control a media platform used by young people for news, pointing to its role in amplifying messages that “divide Americans.”
The issue of economic blackmail is another “huge wake-up call,” as China’s near-monopoly on critical minerals poses a severe economic and military threat, leading Moolenaar to advocate for a 100 percent tariff on strategic items to reduce this dependency.
Finally, in terms of Biosecurity, the congressman cited the BIOSECURE Act, arguing that Chinese companies involved in gene sequencing services pose an important threat to the sensitive data of Americans.
Moolenaar concluded that the US must shed the illusion of China as a normal trading partner and accept that Beijing’s strategy is to use subsidies and unfair practices to “drive US businesses out of different industries.”
The era of believing engagement would moderate the CCP, he implied, is over.