EXCLUSIVE: House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul has vowed to halt the export of technologies to China and hold the Biden administration accountable for the chaotic and deadly 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan as his committee’s top priorities.
McCaul, R-Texas, said one of the first actions he plans to take is to request to see the classified dissident cable that US State Department employees sent warning of the deteriorating security situation and urging evacuation. immediately from the allies.
“I want to see the dissident cable from the embassy. Twenty-three employees took a very extraordinary step, basically objecting to the policy of the President of the United States or the administration,” McCaul told Fox News Digital. “I’d like to see what they had to say. So far, they won’t produce this document. I wonder if they won’t cooperatively produce documents for me that, you know, as a federal prosecutor, ‘What are you trying to hide?'”
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“I have subpoena power. I reserve it until it is necessary. But I’m prepared to do it to get answers to these questions,” McCaul said. He plans to investigate the suicide bomber’s impetus to break out of Bagram and kill 13 US service members, the reason Bagram airport was handed over to the Taliban, and other issues.
“So many mistakes were made,” he said, noting that his experience as a former federal prosecutor will lead him to discover facts and evidence. He said the evidence may lead him to certain administration officials who “may have acted inappropriately.”
Although accountability in Afghanistan is an imperative, McCaul told Fox News Digital that his top priority is preventing the United States from becoming dependent on China, which threatens national security.
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“I think my number one [priority] is to stop the export of technologies to China that they then use to install their most advanced weapons systems that are now being turned against the United States,” he said.
The suspected Chinese spy balloon drifts into the ocean after being shot down off the coast of Surfside Beach, South Carolina on February 4, 2023. (Reuters/Randall Hill)
McCaul said an example is the hypersonic missile that China developed “based on American technology” that landed accurately and can carry a nuclear payload.
“For God’s sake, they steal enough intellectual property from us. We don’t have to sell it to them,” he said.
“And we have to get out of the supply chain like I did with my chip bill. Make semiconductor chips in the United States, not in Taiwan, vulnerable to a Chinese takeover,” McCaul told Fox News Digital. “We also look at rare earth minerals and medical supplies, taking supply chains out of there. As you know, Taiwan produces 90% of advanced semiconductor chip capacity.”
“We don’t want to be dependent on China anymore, and we don’t want to be dependent on their supply chain. And we sure don’t want to sell you technology that you’ll use in your advanced weapons system. become a threat to the United States,” he said.
McCaul was speaking just days after the Air Force shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon.
McCaul’s comments come days after the Air Force shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The president called the surveillance mission a “test” for President Biden by President Xi Jinping, which the United States failed.
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“I would say that in President Xi’s view, the United States, or this president, failed that test by not taking it out into US airspace, but waiting until after it crossed the United States over very sensitive sites, collecting data and then shooting it down.” he said. “I’m glad we finally got it done, but it was too little too late. And it raises questions about what was being passed to China at the time.”
McCaul says that his committee will investigate the incident and what results from the recovery of the balloon.
“The American people have a right to know when an adversary from a foreign nation sends an aviation asset at that low altitude over our country, to the United States that can collect data. They have the right to know the truth.”
