Relationship, an issue that is getting a lot of attention these days. Senator warner has been at the forefront of china and has been a leader on the conversation related to Foreign Policy and National Security issues, both on china and his years of service in the senate. For those of you joining us for the very first time, u. S. I. P. Was founded by congress as a nonpartisan National Institute dedicated to working with partners around the world to prevent and resolve violent conflict. One of the things we do here in our headquarters in washington is to provide a space for conversation about the most critical Foreign Policy issues of the day, and i think the u. S. China relationship certainly qualifies. That is exactly what brings us together. We have seen over the past decade how china has shifted many of its policies, and become far more active in the international stage, particularly, it has invested heavily in countries and laid a much more active role regionally. We have seen this from north korea to burma. Here, we have a program that has really looked at what is the role of china in conflictaffected countries. As part of that, the u. S. I. P. Leads a series of study groups, the first of which have looked at north korea, north korean peace regulations, and chinas role in burmas internal conflict. So i invite you to check those web, which is where you can find them. It is my pleasure to introduce senator warner. He brings a very rich background, a very useful background that combines a business and Technology Career with Public Service. In addition to being the senator from the great state of virginia, he has also served as virginias governor. He has a proven record of bipartisanship, working to advance u. S. Interests and security abroad, and most importantly, he is the chair of the Senate Intelligence committee, where he has worked with senator richard burr and other senators on the other side of the aisle. This combination of the private Sector Technology world and Public Service world, i think gives him particularly keen insight into the topic we are discussing today, and he has really been in the forefront of leading conversations about technology, economic, and trade issues, all of which are at the core of the u. S. China relationship. Thank you, everybody, for joining us today. Thank you for those who are joining us online. If you are using social media, please use the hashtag, and join us for the conversation, at senwarnerusip. With that, please join me in welcoming senator warner. [applause] sen. Warner thank you, nancy. Thank you for the introduction, and thank you for the great work u. S. I. P. Does on so many subjects. I do want to acknowledgment , close to 40 year friend, numbervery involved in a of terribly critical ventures around internationally and around the recent. I went to commend the institute for the important work you do on Foreign Policy challenges. Ive got a lot to say, and i want to make sure we have plenty of time for discussion afterwards, so let me get right at it. Today i think there is a widespread understanding that confronting a rising china is the Foreign Policy challenge of our time. China is a global competitor of 1. 4 billion People Living under an authoritarian system of government that is vying for economic, political, and military influence globally. It is governed by a Chinese Communist party whose view of individual liberty, rule of law, and Democratic Values is starkly different from those of our own. On all these points, there is broad bipartisan agreement. However, there is far less agreement on what our responses to these realities should look like. How do we respond while staying true to our values . I believe we can maintain our leadership and Global Competitive advantage by embracing these defining characteristics that have made america the leader of the free world. Those characteristics are our belief in the rule of law, our checks and balances against government overreach, and our respect for the rights of an individual, especially when those rights come into conflict with the government or a majority faction. These values are the foundation of our International Successes and of our strongest alliances. Today, china is offering a very different model to the world. It has achieved a meteoric rise while rejecting some of these values. I want to make one thing my beef is with the policies of very clear at the outset. President xi jinping and the thing veryo make one clear at the outset. My beef is with the policies of president xi jinping and the Chinese Communist party, not with the chinese people, and especially not with americans of chinese descent. But the truth is, the Chinese Communist party today is intent on fundamentally reshaping the norms and values that have underwritten decades of global stability, security, and prosperity. Let question is, how do we respond . To engage china in a headtohead cold war on multiple fronts, or do we embrace what i would argue is our most traditional leadership role, and strengthen the International Order that beijing is attempting to upend . I would argue that the second approach of offering a better model to the world, one rooted in freedom and opportunity, is both consistent with our values and the approach most likely to succeed. First, i want to talk briefly about how we got here. In many ways, we are having a conversation like this because the conventional wisdom has changed rapidly over the past few years. Until recently, conventional wisdom thought the u. S. And china would rise together, two nations intertwined with the partnership in trade, business and education. Like many, i hoped that the prcs greater global integration would lead to a more open, prosperous and potentially more democratic china, and a rising china would be good for the world. Today, it is clear that the aims of president xi and a communist party do not align with that vision. Instead, the Chinese Government has worked to challenge the rulesbased International System and expand its brand of global influence, military presence, and economic power. It is time to wake up to the fact that beijing is pursuing a strategy not only to strengthen china, but to explicitly diminish u. S. Power and influence. To do this, the communist party is exploiting all the elements of state power to strengthen chinas position in the world. And they are doing this at the expense of human rights and human dignity. They way i see it, these efforts fall into 4 buckets military power, influence campaigns, economic expansion, and an area that has not received attention science and technology policy. First on the military front, the Peoples Liberation army is expanding both its own domestic bases and starting to establish bases overseas. Chinas naval forces are now able to conduct operations farther from home. Operations further from home in the indian ocean, waters around europe, and the western pacific. Under the doctrine of militarycivilian fusion, beijing has pursued cutting Edge Technologies such as a. I. , Unmanned Systems and hypersonics, which will be essential to 21st century war fighting, and the pla is modernizing its military at a fraction of the cost of those in the west are. They are effectively skipping a generation of expensive r d by adopting platforms from foreign militaries, or sometimes stealing the intellectual property to do so. Contrast that with the United States, where we continue to spend 750 billion on defense, including expensive update to legacy military systems and platforms. To compound this, china is focusing its efforts on tools of asymmetric warfare like cyber, space, and misinformation and disinformation. U. S. Defense and intelligence officials are increasingly concerned that the pla now threatens the United States in specific domains such as cyber and space, and the china even leads in specific military technologies, again, such as hypersonic weaponry. Former dni coates and others have one of chinas ability to target Critical Infrastructure right here at home like our electric grid, using cyberattacks. I worry as well about the plas willingness to use cyber theft for economic espionage. The truth is china is demonstrating that wars with competitors may loan minot longer be a mill conflict of the u. S. And their allies realize that cyber and misinformation and disinformation will be just mighttical as military Going Forward in the 21st century. Second aspect of chinas strategic strategy deals with its efforts to wage influence campaigns beyond its borders. The prc has tried to dig to how foreign entities characterize sensitive topics like the dali lama. Beijing has often forced global businesses to conform to its worldviews in order to maintain access to the chinese market. For instance, dictating how u. S. Theires put taiwan on global maps. On college campuses, we have seen Chinese Student groups like the confucius institutes to shape and stifle debate. More broadly, the Chinese Communist party relies on a network of think tanks, newspapers, and allied businesses and political leaders to shape perceptions of china and the party. They have also used their Economic Investments abroad to leverage pressure to pressure other nations to support their diplomatic agenda. , and this one is noteworthy, a number of countries including majority muslim countries signed a letter expressing support for chinas tactics with the population. The Chinese Government has pursued an extensive social Media Disinformation Campaign exploiting the continued vulnerabilities of youtube, facebook, twitter, all sites banned in Mainland China to spread propaganda. The party also dominates Chinese Services we like extending chat, only within its borders but within its Expat Community as well. These tactics are an extension of chinas doctrine of cyber sovereignty. The idea that the state has the absolute right to control information within its border. China has already brought this notion to bear on its people in the form of censorship, to mastic disinformation, and the social credit system. Increasingly, we are seeing it exported on a global scale. Third, on the economic front, has pursued to Economic Strategies aimed at displacing the United States position of Economic Leadership 2025 plan,he china they are focused on developing chinese capabilities in Strategic Industries of the future. At the same time, the prc is working to expand chinese exports globally to its existing customers as well as the developing world. Is making a play for dominance in areas like 5g, ai, quantum computing, robotics, increasingly, even biotech. Janet is employing the full power of the state to build the infrastructure and heres where they are doing Something Different and actually setting the standards for new technologies like 5g wireless. Actually adopting tactics that the United States used for much of the 20th century. But unlike the u. S. , china is trying to set standards to promote its own interests rather than the notions of any sort of fair competition. At the same time, chaise exploits the openness of the International Trading system to gain access for Chinese Companies. Beijing has maintained or even increased barriers to forming to foreign competition. Globally, the belton Road Initiative to build infrastructure and trade weighs inips heavily chinas interest. Accompanying this has been a Digital Initiative to run Chinese Telecommunications equipment. The goal is not only to promote chinese vendors but to seed the Global Technology market that can be exploited by Chinese Security services. Chinese, his the party is attempting to harness Chinese Companies, Civil Society and even overseas diasporas as an extension of the state. The exact efforts are neither hidden nor subtle. Over the past few years, china enacted laws requiring all citizens and companies to act in support of National Security as defined by the Chinese Government. Despite protests to the contrary, no Chinese Company however global is actually private. These companies dont make decisions entirely for economic or commercial reasons. Because they are legally required to act as an extension of the Chinese Communist party when called upon. This leads to the fourth aspect of chinas efforts to reshape the International Order. Science and technology policy. Again and again, we have seen u. S. Companies forced into joint ventures with Chinese Companies who are required to share in ordercode another to get access to the chinese market. We have heard from American Companies who have been put out of business after chinese competitors stole their technology and produced their own lowerclass version of the american product with state subsidies. Chinas blatant effort to steal western technology does not stop at its border. The Justice Department revealed 90 ofar that more than doj economic espionage cases and more than of its currently open trade secret cases all involve china. In particular, the Chinese Communist government views western universities and government labs as Fertile Ground for transfer of Sensitive Research back to china. Whats particularly alarming is ,hat it sees chinese expats especially students and academics as essential assets in these efforts. The fact is, chinese nationals doublee up roughly foreign students studying in the u. S. Out of the 363,000 chinese nationals, studying in the u. S. Last year, nearly half of them were majoring in stem fields. Many of them are returning home to take advantage of the chinas growing economy. My concern is not necessarily with people who want to come here and learn and then go home stop but i have a concern that the communist party is attempting to coerce some these individuals for Technology Information and intelligence collection purposes. Let me be clear, the majority of the students are blameless and make significant contributions to the Research Environment and to the u. S. Economy. We have to acknowledge that what has changed has been in the last few years, more and more, Chinese Intelligence Services ,ften prey upon this population literally threatening the students families back at home, saying your son or daughter needs to not only come home but in a thumb drive back with them. President xi is shifting to a more nationalistic and confrontational path of scientific advancement is that while we must not lose sight of our own founding principles, also cannot ignore the fact that china is now playing by a different set of rules. Where does that leave us . Left unopposed, this threat to global norms and values jeopardizes not just americas position in the world, it risks undermining the home motion of free inquiry, free travel, Free Enterprise and other values that have animated decades of global stability and prosperity. Thats why i am so deeply concerned by the Trump Administrations erratic and incoherent approach. While the administration has rightly raised concerns about china, something frankly that previous president s should have done earlier, the administrations unilateral approach to this challenge is not leading us toward success. After all these difficulties i just theined, not United States, not just to the west but to all nations committed to democracy, individual liberty and an independent judiciary and rules of law countries like, japan, south korea, india, they face the same challenges. Yet rather than building a coalition to confront these issues, President Trump has alienated some of our closest allies. A valuebasedding International Coalition to stand up to china, the president has minimized the importance of human rights and representative government. Even when we see the protesters in hong kong standing up and singing starspangled banner. Insistence ons framing this as