{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=3ED948E3-5F1C-43F5-B96F-369ECC2953D9", "Biden Admin. China Approach Fails To Keep Pace With \u2018Pacing Threat\u2019", "2023-11-15", "2023", "2023-11", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Mitch McConnell", "M000355", "www.mcconnell.senate.gov", "mcconnell", "https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding competition with China:\n\n\u201cOne year ago, President Biden met for the first time as President with Chairman Xi, the head of the Chinese Communist Party. And he pledged that the United States would compete \u2018vigorously\u2019 with the PRC.\n\n\u201cWell, one year later, the President and the Chairman will meet again today. So let\u2019s take stock of whether the Biden Administration is living up to its pledge of \u2018vigorous\u2019 competition.\n\n\u201cThe stakes of this competition simply cannot be overstated.\n\n\u201cThe Chinese military is outpacing us in pivotal military capabilities like hypersonics, precise long-range fires, and even naval vessels. Beijing has secured a commanding share of the rare minerals necessary to create critical supply chains.\n\n\u201cChinese agents are engaged in an aggressive effort to steal sensitive Western technologies and government secrets. And the PRC consistently signals its disdain for national sovereignty, human rights, and the free flow of commerce.\n\n\u201cIn other words, strategic competition with China is going to determine the course of the next century of American history. And yet, the Biden Administration has too often met this historic moment with weakness and naivete. Time and time again, it has sacrificed competition on the altar of green climate policy.\n\n\u201cIn the Administration\u2019s quest to turn the American automobile industry electric, it has apparently made peace with sending American tax dollars to the Chinese industries that dominate battery-making inputs.\n\n\u201cIn pursuit of grand climate diplomacy, the Administration\u2019s envoys have been laughed out of Beijing by a state that keeps on increasing its carbon emissions and has no plan to start cutting them literally for years.\n\n\u201cAnd meanwhile, the consequences of the Biden Administration\u2019s neglect for American hard power are only getting more dangerous.\n\n\u201cThe PRC is acquiring new weapons as much as 6 times faster than the United States. And for each of the past two years, it announced a 7% increase in military spending.\n\n\u201cBut even as the President\u2019s national defense strategy identifies China as \u2018the pacing threat\u2019, his defense budget requests haven\u2019t even kept up with inflation.\n\n\u201cChairman Xi has gone out of his way to align closely with fellow adversaries of the West, stepping up joint military exercises with Putin\u2019s forces and helping both Moscow and Tehran endure Western sanctions.\n\n\u201cChina has made military competition with the West a top priority. We can\u2019t afford to ignore this challenge.\n\n\u201cOur allies certainly aren\u2019t. Japan, South Korea, Australia, and other Indo-Pacific partners are investing heavily in their own defense.\n\n\u201cTaiwan is seeking to make itself a harder target for Chinese aggression. But America must continue to do its part.\n\n\u201cWe have to keep investing in the sort of defense industrial base that can sustain this armament and strengthen our own military for effective deterrence.\n\n\u201cThe Senate has multiple opportunities before us \u2013 in both supplemental measures and full-year defense appropriations \u2013 to do exactly that. And we can\u2019t afford not to seize these opportunities.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:49:58Z"]], "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.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=3ED948E3-5F1C-43F5-B96F-369ECC2953D9"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.9537699408829212, "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"}