{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/newsroom-news-releases-barrasso-china-is-puppet-master-using-russia-iran-against-u-s/", "Barrasso: China is \u201cPuppet Master\u201d Using Russia, Iran against U.S.", "2024-07-30", "2024", "2024-07", "Republican", "Senate", "WY", "John Barrasso", "B001261", "www.barrasso.senate.gov", "barrasso", "https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/newsroom/news-releases/", "scraper", "\u201cI view China as the puppet master here pulling the strings\n\nwith what\u2019s happening in Iran and North Korea, as well as Russia.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 At today\u2019s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) questioned Deputy Secretary Kurt Campbell of the U.S. Department of State on the Biden administration\u2019s failure to prevent China\u2019s use of adversarial countries to weaken American dominance.\n\nSenator Barrasso outlined how the Biden administration has allowed China to evade U.S. sanctions and support America\u2019s adversaries by purchasing Russian and Iranian oil. Barrasso also discussed China\u2019s potential strategic use of these adversarial countries to obtain control over Taiwan.\n\nDeputy Secretary Campbell testified at today\u2019s Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing on Strategic Competition with the PRC: Assessing Competitiveness Beyond the Indo-Pacific.\n\nOn China Helping America\u2019s Adversaries Evade Oil Sanctions\n\n\u201cWe had a briefing last week that many of us attended on the committee on who\u2019s helping Russia and what roles there are in that. I wanted to go along that area of questioning because I\u2019m concerned about China\u2019s support for our adversaries.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s clear China is actively helping both Russia and Iran evade U.S. sanctions.\n\n\u201cIn fact, oil revenues from China are propping up Russian and Iranian economies. They get to buy them at a discount, so China benefits from that. And then Iran and Russia get the money from China.\n\n\u201cI view China as using Russia as a wrecking ball.\n\n\u201cIran, right now, is exporting almost 1.3 million barrels of oil to China every day when there are supposed to be sanctions in place. The Treasury Secretary says, \u2018well, they can\u2019t do any more,\u2019 but the New York Times pointed out just how much oil that the U.S. is allowing and the sanctions that are being evaded.\n\n\u201cThe Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is providing the materials, the technology, the components that Russia and Iran need to wage their wars.\n\n\u201cIt just seems to me the administration has failed to prevent China from purchasing Russian and Iranian energy resources. Do you agree?\u201d\n\nClick here to watch Sen. Barrasso\u2019s remarks on China helping American adversaries.\n\nOn China Using America\u2019s Adversaries to Obtain Control of Taiwan\n\n\u201cI view China as the puppet master here pulling the strings with what\u2019s happening in Iran and North Korea, as well as Russia in their efforts.\n\n\u201cThe concern is that with our involvement in a number of locations around the world \u2013 whether it\u2019s with Ukraine, whether it\u2019s in Israel \u2013 that this is an effort by China to ultimately have us engaged in a number of places and ultimately make it easier for them to take Taiwan, which I believe is one of their single goals.\u201d\n\nClick here to watch Sen. Barrasso\u2019s remarks on China\u2019s strategy to take Taiwan.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:32:29Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/newsroom-news-releases-barrasso-china-is-puppet-master-using-russia-iran-against-u-s/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6391659155488014, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}