EXCLUSIVE: Representative Carlos Gimenez, member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), said China is the “greatest threat” to the United States and that President-elect Donald Trump “will bring peace through strength, not peace through appeasement.”
Gimenez, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital that the CCP is the “adversary we need to keep an eye on, both militarily and economically.”
“China is making great progress around the world,” Gimenez said, pointing to its production capacity, especially in defense equipment and weapons. “It exceeds that of the United States and we have seen that we are falling short.”
Gimenez said the Russian-Ukrainian war “has shown us that our defense capabilities have declined in recent decades.”
Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images/File)
“It shows that we could run out of ammunition quite quickly if we had a prolonged fight with China,” he said, warning that China also has “the ability to produce many more ships than we do.”
Gimenez said the US is “trying to catch up.”
“We need to innovate the way we do things in the Pentagon, we need to be more agile, we need to involve the private sector and we need to eliminate the bureaucracy that has hampered our ability to protect ourselves,” he said.
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But when it comes to tackling the Chinese threat, Gimenez criticized the Biden administration, particularly President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
This view shows the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. (VCG via Getty Images/File)
“I think China, along with Biden and Blinken, thought they could do just about anything they wanted, or thought they could fool them,” he said. “The Biden administration has always shown weakness and tried to appease our enemies, while Trump knows exactly who our friends are, who our enemies are and is going to put America’s security first.”
Gimenez added: “He understands that America’s security lies in peace through strength, not peace through reconciliation.”
As for tackling the threat in the coming months, Gimenez noted the U.S. interest in being energy independent.
Representative Carlos Gimenez (left) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (Getty images/file)
Gimenez said he wants to “make America the energy tap of the world, where the world is going to get energy is America.”
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“It would benefit our financial situation and our balance sheet and give us the opportunity to help our friends and weaken our enemies,” he said.
“We could use our energy dominance as an economic weapon against our enemies, helping our friends and hurting our enemies,” he continued. “We can replace Iranian and Venezuelan oil with American oil, Russian oil with American oil, and then starve the countries linked to China of their largest source of revenue and then hinder their ability to help China.”
“If China becomes isolated in the world, I think this is the best way to contain this threat,” he said. “But we must project strength and willingness to face the CCP’s aggression.”
President Biden meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a virtual summit at the White House on November 15, 2021. (MANDEL EN/AFP via Getty Images)
As for the House Select Committee on the CCP, he said they “have a lot more work to do.”
“The threat to China is increasing,” he said, noting that the committee is bipartisan in nature and that members on both sides of the aisle “have agreed that China is the threat and that China will be the threat.”
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“It’s not climate change, it’s China,” he said. “And we must confront that threat, otherwise we will live in a world dominated by the Chinese Communist Party.”
“And Trump is going to radiate strength and back up these words with actions.”
