Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) Hearing Announcement: "Stand with Taiwan: Countering the PRC’s Political Warfare and Transnational Repression"

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 I have been following the work of the  Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) for some time.  Essays HERE: CECC. CECC serves as an important venue for the dissemination of official positions of the United States on its relationship with China.  Its prior leaders includes current Secretary of State Rubio.  It is also an official space in which debates or positions that might be taken by the State, or what may serve as encouragement for private action, might be developed.   

CECC has a fairly comprehensive range of issues on which it focuses.  CECC issue areas include Access to Justice; Business and Human Rights; Civil Society; Criminal Justice; Developments in Hong Kong and Macau; Ethnic Minority Rights; Freedom of Expression; Freedom of Religion; Freedom of Residence and Movement; Human Rights Violations in the U.S. and Globally; Human Trafficking; Institutions of Democratic Governance; North Korean Refugees in China; Population Control; Public Health; Status of Women; The Environment and Climate Change; Tibet; Worker Rights; and Xinjiang.

Nonetheless, Taiwan does not play a role.  Part of that is likely political--because the status of Taiwan remains sensitive; the U.S. prefers to take the position that Chinese actions affect Taiwan, but not that Taiwan matters are matters internal to China. Thus, for example, in the CECC 2024 Report, Chinese actions that suggest election interference was noted, but in the same way that such interference was catalogued throughput the Pacific basin. 

The PRC attempted to influence Taiwan’s January 2024 general elections and “coax and coerce the Taiwanese population into accepting closer ties” with China, as described by the German Marshall Fund. According to commentary published by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, “while Beijing often tries to shape other countries’ political environments in its favour ahead of general elections . . . its interference in Taiwan is much more direct,” with the use of cognitive warfare, military threats, propaganda, economic retaliation, and measures to further isolate Taiwan in the international community. The PRC, in addition, “tried to co-opt business people and opposition politicians,” reportedly offering local politicians discounted or all-expenses-paid trips to mainland China. Leading up Taiwan’s May 2024 presidential inauguration, PRC authorities sanctioned five Taiwanese political commentators for “spreading rumors to smear the mainland.”  Bloomberg referred to the sanctions as an attempt to “[pile] pressure on incoming president Lai Ching-te just days before he takes office,” 68 with the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents’ Club describing them as “an affront to free speech and the rights of journalists to operate without intimidation or reprisal.”(2024 CECC Report, p. 294)

More importantly was the way Taiwan's elections evidenced Chinese internal censorship of the sort that merited CECC criticism. 

Taiwan’s election. Chinese social media platforms suppressed discussion of Taiwan’s January 2024 general election. Weibo blocked the hashtag “#TaiwanElection” after it reached number 11 on Weibo’s “hot list.” One observer also noted that a number of online comments praising Taiwan’s electoral process were censored. When the PRC’s Taiwan Affairs Office  spokesperson criticized the election results on Weibo, online commentators mocked China’s own political system in response, prompting a shutdown of the comments section. (2024 CECC Report, p. 53; see also page 105)

 Those strands of criticism play a large role in shaping an announced upcoming CECC hearing:  "Stand with Taiwan: Countering the PRC’s Political Warfare and Transnational Repression," to be held on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, 10:00 am at 222 Russell Senate Office Building.  Current speakers include Rear Admiral Mike Studeman, USN (Ret.): Former Commander of the Office of Naval Intelligence; Peter Mattis: President, The Jamestown Foundation; and Audrye Wong: Jeane Kirkpatrick Fellow, American Enterprise Institute and Assistant Professor of political science and international relations, University of Southern California. Others will likely be added.

The Hearing announcement follows.  

Hearing Announcement  Stand with Taiwan: Countering the PRC’s Political Warfare and Transnational Repression

Wednesday, July 23, 2025, 10:00 am  222 Russell Senate Office Building  The PRC has escalated its use of covert, coercive, and extraterritorial tactics against Taiwan and its supporters, threatening the island’s democracy, creating skepticism and distrust in U.S.-Taiwan relations, and seeking to shape legal and academic narratives on Taiwan’s status. This hearing will spotlight the CCP’s expanding campaign of political warfare and repression targeting Taiwan and the Taiwanese diaspora globally. Through expert testimony, the Commission will explore policy options to counter such malign activities in Taiwan and the United States and advance legislative initiatives like the Stand with Taiwan Act and the Transnational Repression Policy Act.  This hearing will address four dimensions of the PRC’s strategy: (1) political and cognitive warfare operations targeting Taiwan; (2) efforts to silence, censor, or intimidate members of the Taiwanese diaspora; (3) extraterritorial implications of the PRC’s 2024 “22 Articles” under the Anti-Secession Law, which criminalizes advocacy for Taiwanese independence; and (4) the PRC’s global campaign to shape the legal and academic narrative on Taiwan’s status. Expert witnesses will analyze these tactics and provide policy recommendations to enhance Taiwan’s resilience to the PRC's malign influence activities and address transnational repression in the United States and globally.  Witnesses:  Rear Admiral Mike Studeman, USN (Ret.): Former Commander of the Office of Naval Intelligence Peter Mattis: President, The Jamestown Foundation Audrye Wong: Jeane Kirkpatrick Fellow, American Enterprise Institute and Assistant Professor of political science and international relations, University of Southern California Additional Witnesses May be Added

Chair Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK)

Co-Chair Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ)