Former House China hawk warns Americans about the dangers of the CCP’s growing technological dominance

The former chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party warned about a fast-moving software and technology race between the United States and China, arguing the weaponization of supply chains could force a showdown between the free world and its totalitarian rivals.

Former Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., told Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier about a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) op-ed he wrote Sunday, outlining his concerns about China’s growing technological dominance.

“On the modern battlefield, we need to not only know our adversary but know ourselves and map our supply chain in great detail,” he said Monday on “Special Report.”

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Gallagher, the head of defense for Palantir Technologies, a Denver-based software company, highlighted how China could use its manufactured port cranes across the world to disrupt international commerce if the United States were to get into a conflict with China over Taiwan.

“The Biden administration recently warned that Chinese-made port cranes could be ‘controlled… from remote locations.’ European companies found that Chinese groups may have gained access to the systems that control cargo ships. Billions of endpoints connect to the internet, including sensors and devices that physically interact with critical infrastructure. Anyone with control over a portion of the technology stack such as semiconductors, cellular modules, or hardware devices, can use it to snoop, incapacitate or kill,” he wrote in the WSJ.

A gantry crane is lifting containers at the Nanchang International Dry Port in Nanchang, China, on August 15, 2024.  (Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Gallagher added that there’s bipartisan support in Congress for a tougher U.S. approach to China but called out the Biden administration for pursuing the idea that the United States’ interests align with the CCP when it comes to responsible use of technology like artificial intelligence (A.I.).

“I think that’s foolish. I think the only interest Xi Jinping has when it comes to AI is in dominating the technology and using it for dystopian totalitarian purposes,” he told Baier. 

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“And I think in light of the pager attack [in Lebanon], in light of the weaponization of supply chains more broadly, we’re going to see a bifurcation of the world into a totalitarian tech stack and a free world tech stack. Our job is to make sure that the latter prevails over the former. And step one in doing that is recognizing that the CCP is not a responsible actor when it comes to technology or climate change or fentanyl cooperation. That’s a fundamental first step we need to take.”

The distinguished fellow at the Hudson Institute voiced his concerns about the direction of the country and the readiness of America’s national security establishment.

“The defense industrial base has become too ossified,” said Gallagher. “We need to leverage our asymmetric advantage, which is our ability to produce weapons-grade software and apply it to revitalizing our entire defense industrial base.”

The Biden administration announced earlier this year the steps it was taking to strengthen the cybersecurity of the nation’s ports and to invest in port infrastructure.

The U.S. Commerce Department proposed Monday banning Chinese and Russian-made software and hardware in connection with autonomous vehicles in the U.S., citing national security concerns.

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“Cars today have cameras, microphones, GPS tracking and other technologies connected to the internet. It doesn’t take much imagination to understand how a foreign adversary with access to this information could pose a serious risk to both our national security and the privacy of U.S. citizens,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.

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