During a Fox News Channel appearance, U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Saks), who serves as the ranking member on the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, weighed in on an ambitious Communist China as a threat to the United States.
Rogers told host Trey Gowdy the latest iteration of the National Defense Authorization Act was a "pivot" to reflect that threat.
"The thing that we've got to keep in mind is China has global aspirations," Rogers said. "Their Belt and Road Initiative is a 50-year initiative to become both an economic and a military superpower. And we've got to realize that is our pacing threat. We've got to be concerned about what's happening in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. The most dominant threat we have to our national interest is China. We've got to be focused on that. That's why we're making a pivot in this year's National Defense Authorization Act, the defense bill … to make sure we're prepared to take on aggression from China, which has become more menacing lately with the threat on Taiwan."
Rogers also warned China's continued presence in the U.S. manufacturing supply chain was a threat to national security.
"Unfortunately, not," Rogers replied when asked if the United States had met the challenge of being "more self-reliant." "And that's not the biggest threat to me. The biggest threat is we still haven't gotten China out of our supply chain. We have made it a goal that we expect to have them out within the next couple of years. But I think if the pandemic taught us anything, meaning the western world, that all of us have allowed ourselves to lazily become dependent on China for far too much in our lives. And that's got to be changed. And we're making steps in that direction. But you make a great point about us being self-supportive. We've got to recognize that being able to feed and clothe ourselves in this country is a matter of national security, and we can't depend on other countries to be able to help us do that, militarily or otherwise."
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