China poses a threat to America’s senior citizens through drug supply chains, financial scams and data privacy, a congressional hearing highlighted on Wednesday, with lawmakers and witnesses framing it as a national security issue.
“Fifty years ago, we never would have given the Soviets the kind of leeway we give China: the access they have to our economy and our information, the dependence they enjoy from our supply chains,” said Rick Scott, a Republican senator from Florida, adding that the US needed to “get serious about this before it’s too late”.
The hearing, titled “Counting the Cost: Communist China’s Toll on Older Americans’ Health, Finances and Security” covered several issues affecting ageing Americans, including China’s dominance in pharmaceutical ingredients, as well as global drug supply chains.
“China’s weaponisation of supply chains is not theoretical. China has made controlling global supply chains an explicit strategic goal,” said Chris Slevin, from the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC).
All four witnesses at the Senate Special Committee on Ageing hearing were from the USCC, which does not have lawmaking authority but is authorised by Congress and can be influential on legislation.
The USCC and the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) are bipartisan congressional panels set up to strengthen scrutiny on China in the early 2000s ahead of its accession to the World Trade Organization.
In recent years, concerns have grown that China could dominate the world’s pharmaceutical industry, particularly due to America’s reliance on Chinese producers of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).
China supplies 87 per cent of US antibiotic APIs and 80 to 90 per cent of global API production, committee chairman Scott said, pointing to a Coalition for a Prosperous America report.
