PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Dave McCormick outlined six aggressive measures Thursday that he thinks the United States should take against China to curb what he described as a danger to American security and economic independence as he tries to out-hawk Sen. Bob Casey in his bid for the U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday we face a shadow growing on the Pacific horizon and we cannot be caught by surprise again as we were in 1941,\u201d McCormick said in a speech in Philadelphia on the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.<\/p>\n
His talk marked the biggest showing yet of a new tactic <\/a>for the Republican candidate<\/a>, whose 2022 Senate run was gravely hurt <\/a>by his own party questioning his ability to be strong on China, where his company made huge investments while he was CEO of Bridgewater Associates.<\/p>\n In a 20-minute speech on the top floor of the Independence Visitor\u2019s Center overlooking Independence Hall, McCormick laid out a six-step plan to overhaul U.S.-China relations, including banning the nation from the World Health Organization and advocating for its exclusion from the World Trade Organization. He also challenged Casey, who he argued has been ineffective on Chinese influence, to back the plan.<\/p>\n McCormick was introduced by former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, who served under former President Donald Trump<\/a> and has since condemned Trump\u2019s leadership on foreign policy. Esper, who grew up outside of Pittsburgh, called McCormick a friend. \u201cI\u2019m a clear-eyed, unabashed, unapologetic China Hawk,\u201d Esper said. \u201cAnd so is Dave McCormick.\u201d<\/p>\n Outside, a small group of retired union carpenters called McCormick a hypocrite whose investments in China cost Pennsylvania manufacturing jobs. A digital billboard paid for by the Pennsylvania Democratic Party circled the venue, displaying a quote from 2007 when McCormick said, \u201cWhen China succeeds, the United States succeeds.\u201d<\/p>\n McCormick called China an adversary and said talking with the nation in good faith was like \u201csitting down with an arsonist.\u201d<\/p>\n He outlined six things he wants to do \u2014 with varying detail on how he\u2019d get them done. Some items on his list are largely outside of the purview of a U.S. senator.<\/p>\n \u2014McCormick said he wants to stop the flow of Chinese fentanyl ingredients and drug money into the United States. It was unclear how he would accomplish such a huge task, but he said if China refused to cooperate, the United States should use \u201csanctions, intelligence resources, military interdictions at sea, and all other tools at our disposal to make it as difficult as possible for drug cartels to produce fentanyl with ingredients originating in China.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014He said the U.S. should advocate for China\u2019s removal from the WTO and strip the country of its \u201cpermanent normal trade relations\u201d status with the United States. China became a member of the World Trade Organization in 2001 and has been a contentious member of the organization. Neither the U.S. Senate nor a president has the direct ability to remove a country from the WTO. As for the trade designation, that\u2019s awarded from one nation to another and broadly guarantees trade advantages like low tariffs.<\/p>\n \u2014McCormick called for a pause on the use of lithium batteries and solar panels. He criticized President Joe Biden\u2019s green agenda for further fueling dependence on China, given its outsized production of lithium and materials used in solar panels.<\/p>\n \u2014McCormick said he supports ending any U.S. investment or trade that benefits the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s national security. Casey has proposed a similar idea in the Outbound Investment Transparency Act. That legislation, which Republicans stripped from a recent National Defense Authorization Act, calls for transparency in investments, not a ban \u2014 though Casey has said he would support one.<\/p>\n \u2014McCormick also said the U.S. should ban strategic purchases of land by the Communist Party.<\/p>\n \u2014He argued China should be removed from the World Health Organization. The WHO is a specialized agency of the United Nations and removal of a country would come from the U.N. The Trump administration ended financial support for WHO and started a process to withdraw, but Biden reversed that move after taking office.<\/p>\n About a half dozen retired members of the carpenter\u2019s union showed up to protest McCormick\u2019s appearance. The group took issue with what they called the hypocrisy of McCormick overseeing widespread investment in China and then giving a speech on how to cut down on that very thing.<\/p>\n The Pennsylvania Democratic Party organized the protest in conjunction with the union members, arguing McCormick \u201coutsourced American jobs\u201d and sold American workers out to China.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no disputing the 108,000% increase in Chinese investments Bridgewater took on while McCormick was CEO. McCormick has tried to argue his experience in a company that did business with China, as well as undersecretary of defense under President George W. Bush, equips him well to take on the issue.<\/p>\n Democrats also argued that as CEO of FreeMarkets, an internet commerce specialist, McCormick outsourced jobs to India and opened a new office in China. In 2003 the company laid off 50 workers in Pittsburgh<\/a> shortly before adding 100 new positions in New Delhi. A representative with the company has said the jobs cut 19 years ago were not the same as those added in India and represented a shift in focus for the company.<\/p>\n FreeMarkets did open an Asia-Pacific headquarters in China while McCormick was CEO. It relocated from Singapore.<\/a> <\/p>\n McCormick\u2019s campaign has consistently touted him as a \u201cjob creator\u201d in Pittsburgh, given the business was a start-up.<\/p>\n In his speech on Thursday, McCormick predicted Casey would respond: \u201c\u2019McCormick himself did business in China. Bridgewater did business in China.\u2019 And it did. These attacks are predictable, but the real question is who has the will and the strength to act?\u201d<\/p>\n While McCormick\u2019s main hit against Casey on the issue is that he hasn\u2019t done enough, Casey has a legislative record that includes several bills related to curbing China\u2019s influence.<\/p>\n His list of bipartisan accomplishments on standing up to China include:<\/p>\n \u2014Casey coauthored legislation that passed in July requiring investors to notify the Treasury Department when they invest in Chinese companies in sectors like artificial intelligence and quantum computing that could impact security.<\/p>\n \u2014He worked on several provisions that passed in the National Defense Authorization Act in 2021, including protections for American companies from Chinese industrial espionage, publicly identifying Chinese military companies working in the U.S., increased funding for the U.S. military to counter Chinese threats in the Pacific \u2014 and a separate measure requiring the Department of Defense to counter Chinese efforts to steal intellectual property from academic institutions.<\/p>\n \u2014He also cosponsored an act that required the U.S. Postal Service to use advanced data tracking to curb smuggling of fentanyl from China and backed Trump\u2019s decision to impose steel and aluminum tariffs on China.<\/p>\n \u2014In 2014 he cosponsored the \u201cBring Jobs Home\u201d Act, which aimed to stop tax breaks to companies moving jobs overseas and extend tax credits to companies that moved jobs from China to the U.S. The bill did not pass.<\/p>\n In a hotly contested race, China may actually be one of the few policy issues the two men agree on \u2014 though they are sure to continue debating who is better equipped to lead on the issue.<\/p>\n McCormick said Casey has \u201cdithered away\u201d his time in the Senate as China has \u201cmoved aggressively.\u201d<\/p>\n Casey has previously criticized McCormick as out of touch with regular voters. \u201cI think they\u2019re gonna want to look for someone who\u2019s been fighting these battles and not someone who\u2019s made a lot of money by investing in China,\u201d he said last week.<\/p>\n The McCormick speech previewed more policy addresses to come as part of a series the Republican has dubbed his \u201cKeystone Agenda to Reclaim America.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a92023 The Philadelphia Inquirer. Visit inquirer.com<\/a>. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.<\/a> <\/p>\n KeyWords:: f4f6206b-77bb-48f1-aaaf-61b5ade1967c PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Dave McCormick outlined six aggressive measures Thursday that he thinks the United States should take against China to curb what he described as a danger to American security and economic independence as he tries to out-hawk Sen. Bob Casey in his bid for the U.S. Senate. \u201cToday we face a shadow growing on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59216"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59217,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59216\/revisions\/59217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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