China is the United States' "No. 1 existential threat," Rep. Vicky Hartzler, who has introduced two bills aimed at preventing the Chinese from committing espionage in the United States, told Newsmax Wednesday.
"I'm going to continue to focus on that threat as well as what's going on in Russia, North Korea, and Iran," the Missouri Republican, who has mounted a race for the GOP senate nomination in her state, said on Newsmax's "National Report."
Hartzler's first bill, if passed, would prohibit members of China's Communist Party, its leadership, or their families from coming to the United States to get an education. The other piece of legislation closes a loophole that Chinese individuals who have committed espionage from returning to the United States once they leave.
"We've learned that Xi Jinping's daughter received her undergraduate degree in Harvard, and from what I understand is, here in the United States getting a graduate degree," said Hartzler. "Why would we enable those who are adversaries who want to undermine America? Why would we give them a world-class education?"
It's not just about the education, she added, but about the national security threat posed by allowing such students on American campuses.
"We know that there's espionage that takes place, and we do not need to have them here," said Hartzler.
Hartzler also discussed President Joe Biden's actions on Ukraine and Russia, and said as a former teacher, she'd give him a grade of "D-minus," as part of Russian President Vladimir Putin's boldness was enabled by the president's failures in Afghanistan.
"It was the botched withdrawal that emboldens our enemies and has enabled [Putin] to start this unprecedented attack potentially on this democratic free nation of Ukraine," she said. "Biden has made a mistake on every front in how he has handled this."
Biden was weak after Russian criminals hacked the Colonial pipeline, said Hartzler, adding that he's "acquiesced to Putin at every turn, and this is very concerning."
"I have been calling for tougher sanctions from the beginning," the congresswoman continued.
"You don't wait until he invades before you take action. And now even though Russia has already brought in troops and brought in military equipment into the region of the east, [Biden's] just doing these minor, incremental sanctions."
Instead, the United States needs to "hit Putin with everything we have," said Hartzler. "Tell him to leave the border, and leave Ukraine alone, and then we will remove these sanctions. It's going to be too little too late, and I am hurting for the people, the free and independent, many of them Christian people of Ukraine."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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