CWP Alum Gives Testimony Before The US-China Economic And Security Review Commission

March 27, 2023
USCC United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission -logo

Rather than a singular national security challenge, the PRC’s attempts to influence and interfere in politics inside other countries are better understood as the sources of a diverse set of risks to liberal democracy. Issues such as electoral interference or elite cooptation present significant risks to national security, but the most demonstrable overseas impact of Beijing’s interference has been on civil liberties and human rights, particularly inside diaspora communities. None of the Five Eyes countries has adequately tackled these effects. Addressing the PRC’s influence and interference attempts is an opportunity to fundamentally strengthen democratic institutions. However, it is crucial that policy responses recognize and maintain distinctions between issues of national security and civil liberties, both in order to ensure effectiveness and to avoid further unintended harm to liberal democracy. Although widely cited as an example to follow, Australia’s response also illustrates the drawbacks of an aggregated national security approach to diverse issues of influence and interference.

HEARING ON "CHINA’S GLOBAL INFLUENCE AND INTERFERENCE ACTIVITIES" 

Thursday, March 23, 2023 - Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 406, and Webex

 

Hearing Co-Chairs: Commissioner Bob Borochoff and Commissioner Michael Wessel

9:00 AM – 9:10 AM: Co-Chairs' Opening Remarks
 
9:10 AM – 10:40 AM: Panel I: Experiences and Lessons Learned from China’s Influence and Interference Activities Around the World

  • Puma Shen, Associate Professor, National Taipei University and Chairman, Doublethink Lab [Testimony]
  • Andrew Chubb, Senior Lecturer in Chinese Politics and International Relations, Lancaster University [Testimony]
  • Caitlin Dearing Scott, Technical and Team Lead - Countering Foreign Authoritarian Influence, Center for Global Impact at the International Republican Institute [Testimony]

10:40 AM – 10:50 AM: Break

10:50 AM – 12:50 PM: Panel II: Chinese Influence and Interference by Sector

12:50 PM – 2:00 PM: Lunch Break

2:00 PM – 3:30 PM: Panel III: The Chinese Communist Party’s Approach to Influence and Interference

3:30 PM – 3:35 PM: Closing Remarks

3:35 PM: Adjourn

 

Statement for the Record

  • Daniel Currell, Fellow, National Security Institute, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University [Statement]
  • Ian Oxnevad, Program Research Associate, National Association of Scholars [Statement]
  • Erin Baggott Carter, Assistant Professor of International Relations, University of Southern California and Hoover Fellow, Stanford University's Hoover Institution [Statement]
  • John Metz, President, Athenai Institute & Rory O’Connor, Chairman, Athenai Institute [Statement]

 

 

Andrew Chubb is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion. A graduate of the University of Western Australia, his work examines the linkages between Chinese domestic politics and international relations. More broadly, Andrew's interests include maritime and territorial disputes, strategic communication, political propaganda, and Chinese Communist Party history. Andrew is the author of Chinese Nationalism and the Gray Zone: Case Analyses of Public Opinion and PRC Foreign Policy (Naval War College Press, 2021) andthe PRC Overseas Political Activities: Risk, Reaction and the Case of Australia (Routledge and Royal United Services Institute, 2021).

Photo Credit: By United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission - Extracted from the PDF document Red Cloud Rising: Cloud Computing in China (2013) linked from this page, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29048145

Andrew Chubb Lancaster