Katko Outlines Strategy For Countering China

WASHINGTON, DC – In a recent conversation with Silverado Policy Accelerator, Rep. John Katko (R-NY), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, discussed key homeland security trends and how the United States must adapt to a new, more connected, and more competitive world.

Speaking alongside Former Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull, Katko emphasized how the U.S. and Australia must continue working together to counter China’s malign influence around the world.

“We are at a turning point in the history of the world. Never before has the globe been simultaneously so interconnected and also so divided,” said Ranking Member Katko. “I believe in the power of democracy, capitalism, and individual freedom as forces for good and that bolstering them allows for more secure and prosperous nations. It’s time we reinforce these principles both at home and abroad with our allies and friends and combat any who would seek to erode and replace them.”

Click here to read Katko’s prepared remarks or see below for highlights.

Key Homeland Security Trends
“We are becoming ever more aware of the fact that the world has changed and the power dynamics and assumptions about our long-term prosperity, resilience, and security have also changed.”

• We are losing our strategic geographic advantagebecause of cyber actors.
• Our global interconnectedness has created new and potentially catastrophic domestic resilience vulnerabilities.
• We don’t fully appreciate or know how to value data we generate and export from a security standpoint.
• Our entire concept of homeland security is predicated on the notion of abrupt, violent shocks. We must adjust to a long-term, multi-faceted threat landscape.

Standing Up To China
“To compete with China and emerge victorious, clear eyed focus on the challenges we face must be at the forefront of every conversation about both the security and prosperity of our nation. There are three elements we can use to frame that conversation, and they are counter, curb, and compete.”

• Counter: We must impose costs to deter or disincentivize actions by the CCP globally. These may include prohibiting key exports from leaving our shores, holding accountable PRC nationals violating our laws, and taking reciprocal action in response to cyber incursions and theft of intellectual property and data.
• Curb: In the United States we must educate state and local municipalities about the threats they face from China via partnerships, financial transactions, or business acquisitions. There must be a more robust dialog with business leaders about the impacts of doing business in and with China, and most importantly, we need to recognize that the decisions we make now will have outsized impacts down the line. China is playing the long game, and we must focus on long-term results as well.
• Compete: If we intend to challenge Chinese actions, we need to recognize that tactics they employ internationally will ultimately affect the U.S. domestically. We need to work with partners and allies around the world to determine how we are going to convince entities and nations that it’s not in their interest to work with China on foreign investment, supply chain diversity, ICT technology proliferation, data security, and a multitude of other issue areas. Most of all though we need to provide viable alternatives and competitive solutions in the face of cheap and heavily subsidized Chinese goods and services.

Economic Security Is Homeland Security
“Perhaps the most pressing issue facing the homeland and our long-term security is the security of our economy. Safeguarding the critical infrastructure sectors is a core aspect of the homeland security mission that impacts a wide range of industries vital to the daily lives of Americans. We must do several things with speed, intensity, and focus.”

• Identify weaknesses in the resiliency of the public and private sectors and their ability to recover from disaster events.
• Protect the nation from peer or near-peer competitors who look to exploit international systems and norms to gain asymmetric access to the U.S. market and further their own industrial and geopolitical agendas.
• Account for both future crisesand potential conflicts. The United States must ensure that we have the goods and infrastructure we need to be resilient, prosperous, and remain the world’s marketplace of democracy.
• Gauge our ability to access critical markets and that the availability of goods will remain robust.