{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.ricketts.senate.gov/news/press-releases/ricketts-denounces-communist-chinas-actions-in-indo-pacific-illegal-coercive-aggressive-and-deceptive/", "Ricketts Denounces Communist China\u2019s Actions in Indo-Pacific: \u201cIllegal, Coercive, Aggressive, and Deceptive\u201d", "2025-10-08", "2025", "2025-10", "Republican", "Senate", "NE", "Pete Ricketts", "R000618", "www.ricketts.senate.gov", "ricketts", "https://www.ricketts.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/?jsf=jet-engine:press-list&pagenum=", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Yesterday, U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE), the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, The Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy, denounced Communist China\u2019s Illegal, Coercive, Aggressive, and Deceptive (ICAD) actions in the Indo-Pacific.\n\n\u201cToday\u2019s hearing is on an egregious and continuing problem: Communist China\u2019s illegal, coercive, aggressive, and deceptive actions, also known as ICAD, in the Indo-Pacific,\u201d said Senator Ricketts. \u201cYou\u2019ll first notice the deliberate use of ICAD, coined by our Filipino friends, rather than \u2018grey zone.\u2019 This isn\u2019t just semantics. \u2019Grey zone\u2019 allows Communist China to muddy the waters with regard to its intention and its involvement. It\u2019s trying to hide what it\u2019s trying to do and \u2018grey zone\u2019 allows them to be able to do that. ICAD dispels this ambiguity and allows for more appropriate responses. It\u2019s time to call out Beijing\u2019s behavior for what it actually is. It\u2019s illegal, coercive, aggressive, and deceptive.\u201d\n\nRicketts praised America\u2019s allies and partners in the region for \u201cbravely confronting Beijing\u2019s ICAD behavior.\u201d Ricketts also called on Congress to do more to combat Communist China and deter future conflicts.\n\n\u201cThe United States must do more to even the scales and strengthen their resilience. Ranking Member Coons and I are working together to do just that,\u201d closed Senator Ricketts. \u201cWe introduced the Taiwan Energy Security and Anti-Embargo Act, which would facilitate increased American LNG exports to Taiwan; encourage cooperation with Taiwan on nuclear energy use; and ensure commerce with Taiwan continues in a contingency. We also introduced the PORCUPINE Act, which would make it easier to quickly send arms that are critical for Taiwan to respond to and deter some of Communist China\u2019s ICAD activities. And finally, we recently introduced a resolution honoring the 74th anniversary of the U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty to ensure Communist China knows that the United States will continue to stand by our ally. But more needs to be done.\u201d\n\nWatch the video here\n\nHearing witnesses included:\n\nMr. Craig Singleton, China Program Senior Director and Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies\n\nMr. Raymond Powell, Executive Director, SeaLight Foundation\n\nDr. Ely Ratner, Principal, The Marathon Initiative\n\nTRANSCRIPT:\n\nSenator Ricketts: \u201cToday\u2019s hearing is on an egregious and continuing problem: Communist China\u2019s illegal, coercive, aggressive, and deceptive actions, also known as ICAD, in the Indo-Pacific.\n\n\u201cYou\u2019ll first notice the deliberate use of ICAD, coined by our Filipino friends, rather than \u201cgrey zone.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis isn\u2019t just semantics.\n\n\u201c\u2019Grey zone\u2019 allows Communist China to muddy the waters with regard to its intention and its involvement.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s trying to hide what it\u2019s trying to do and \u2018grey zone\u2019 allows them to be able to do that.\n\n\u201cICAD dispels this ambiguity and allows for more appropriate responses.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s time to call out Beijing\u2019s behavior for what it actually is. It\u2019s illegal, coercive, aggressive, and deceptive.\n\n\u201cIn April, as Senator Coons mentioned, he and I, and Senator Budd, saw Beijing\u2019s firsthand ICAD conduct on full display on a CODEL that we took to the Philippines and Taiwan.\n\n\u201cOn a P-8 overflight of the West Philippine Sea, we witnessed firsthand the sheer scope of Chinese illegal violations of the Philippines\u2019 exclusive economic zone.\n\n\u201cCommunist China utilizes the full spectrum of ICAD measures to try to turn the West Philippine Sea into a Chinese lake within Beijing\u2019s illegitimate and illegal Nine-Dash Line and undermining the Philippine people\u2019s will to resist.\n\n\u201cXi Jinping has referred to this as the \u2018smokeless battlefield\u2019 that will allow Communist China to win without fighting.\n\n\u201cThanks to the tireless work of the Philippines, this hostility has been publicly documented, making it impossible for Communist China to deny, or for the world to ignore.\n\n\u201cHowever, despite the reputational costs, Communist China\u2019s dangerous aggression continues.\n\n\u201cIn August, we saw two Chinese vessels collide as they belligerently tried to ram a Philippine Coast Guard ship near the Scarborough Shoal.\n\n\u201cWhile this was a reckless and embarrassing event for Xi Jinping, it could have been much worse, particularly if there was a fatal collision with the Filipino vessel.\n\n\u201cThis could have triggered our mutual defense treaty with the Philippines and started a war.\n\n\u201cRather than appreciating the severe risks of its aggression, Communist China has instead doubled-down.\n\n\u201cIn addition to continuing to ram ships and shoot water cannons, Communist China has resorted to political lawfare, recently declaring Scarborough reef as a nature reserve.\n\n\u201cLet\u2019s be clear \u2013 this is in the Philippines EEZ, not Communist China\u2019s!\n\n\u201cIn Taiwan, the story isn\u2019t any better, as my colleague just highlighted.\n\n\u201cTaiwan continues to endure disinformation campaigns, cyberattacks, blockades of Taiwanese food exports, undersea cable cutting, violations of its airspace and Exclusive Economic Zone, and increasingly larger military exercises simulating quarantines, blockades, and invasion.\n\n\u201cUnder President Lai, Taiwan has taken critical steps to strengthen its resilience to Communist China\u2019s ICAD behavior, including increasing national-level planning and conducting civil defense exercises.\n\n\u201cBut Taiwan still remains particularly vulnerable to coercion.\n\n\u201cThis was evident in a tabletop exercise that Senator Coons and I held with Mr. Singleton earlier this year simulating a Chinese pressure campaign targeting Taiwan\u2019s energy.\n\n\u201cWhile Taiwanese and U.S.defense planners are right to prepare for a PLA invasion, a more immediate risk might be that Communist China will use ICAD tactics to destroy Taiwan\u2019s ability to push back.\n\n\u201cIf we are to successfully neutralize Chinese ICAD tactics targeting Taiwan, it is clear that more needs to be done to bolster Taiwan\u2019s whole-of-society resilience, military preparedness, and level of international support.\n\n\u201cConcerningly, Beijing\u2019s ICAD playbook is not confined to the West Philippine Sea or Taiwan Strait, but is now being used throughout the region.\n\n\u201cIn February, Chinese warships sailed through the Tasman Sea and circumvented Australia\u2019s coastline for more than three weeks.\n\n\u201cThey staged unprecedented live-fire drills in a show of force meant to intimidate and stress test Australia\u2019s ability to respond.\n\n\u201cCommunist China is also increasingly militarizing the Yellow Sea, installing dual-purpose platforms in disputed territory with South Korea.\n\n\u201cSimilarly, Beijing has stepped up construction of drilling rigs and other platforms along the median line with Japan in the East China Sea, while it conducts a record number of Coast Guard patrols around the Senkaku Islands.\n\n\u201cSo why does all of this matter?\n\n\u201cTo steal from Mr. Powell \u2013 as Sun Tzu said: \u2018Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy\u2019s resistance without fighting.\u2019\n\n\u201cThis is right out of Sun Tzu\u2019s playbook to be able to win.\n\n\u201cThe greatest general never fights a battle, but defeats his enemy beforehand.\n\n\u201cUltimately, Communist China would rather act as a python, slowing squeezing countries\u2019 will to resist rather than acting as a cobra and striking quickly.\n\n\u201cCommunist China\u2019s ICAD tactics are central to this effort, or at the very least, they could provoke a kinetic response and give Beijing a pretext for \u2018self-defensive\u2019 military action.\n\n\u201cThe good news is that we have allies and partners who are bravely confronting Beijing\u2019s ICAD behavior.\n\n\u201cBut they are currently out-matched.\n\n\u201cThe United States must do more to even the scales and strengthen their resilience.\n\n\u201cRanking Member Coons and I are working together to do just that.\n\n\u201cWe introduced the Taiwan Energy Security and Anti-Embargo Act, which would facilitate increased American LNG exports to Taiwan; encourage cooperation with Taiwan on nuclear energy use; and ensure commerce with Taiwan continues in a contingency.\n\n\u201cWe also introduced the PORCUPINE Act, which would make it easier to quickly send arms that are critical for Taiwan to respond to and deter some of Communist China\u2019s ICAD activities.\n\n\u201cAnd finally, we recently introduced a resolution honoring the 74th anniversary of the U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty to ensure Communist China knows that the United States will continue to stand by our ally.\n\n\u201cBut more needs to be done.\n\n\u201cAnd I look forward to hearing from our witnesses to understand the evolution of Communist China\u2019s use of ICAD tactics, and what the U.S., and, specifically, Congress, can do to combat them.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"]], "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.ricketts.senate.gov/news/press-releases/ricketts-denounces-communist-chinas-actions-in-indo-pacific-illegal-coercive-aggressive-and-deceptive/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7388091180473566, "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"}