Lawmakers fear Clinton’s former aide could give the communist nation a powerful ally in the White House

Collin Anderson • September 8, 2022 4:20 p.m.

President Joe Biden on Friday tapped John Podesta to oversee $370 billion in climate spending, a move that worries Chinese hawks on Capitol Hill over Podesta’s encouragement of Chinese investment in U.S. infrastructure and praise from the government. America’s main adversary on climate change.

Podesta has called for Chinese investment in American infrastructure, arguing in 2013 that there are “great opportunities for Chinese companies to invest directly in this country, build American infrastructure, create American jobs, and generate income.” stable and beautiful yields”. He added, “Chinese companies also have the opportunity to invest here and learn best practices, and bring them home to the huge and growing middle-class market in China.”

Instead, in the decade since, the Chinese government has engaged in widespread economic espionage – a 2017 estimate found that China steals up to $600 billion worth of trade secrets a year. Engineers in China, meanwhile, use the popular social media platform TikTok to access non-public data US users.

Podesta has also praised China’s efforts to tackle climate change, arguing in 2015 that the Chinese are “starting to do quite a bit of it”. China, which is the world’s biggest carbon emitter, then dramatically accelerated its coal consumption, which reached an all-time high in 2020.

The record has Chinese hawks on the Hill fearing that America’s main adversary has a powerful new ally in the White House. Podesta’s role will see the liberal consultant invest $370 billion in alternative energy, a sector that China dominates in raw materials. So alternative energy companies receiving the Podesta-led funding could look to China to secure their supplies. Biden’s new aide is unlikely to dispute this dynamic, given that he has argued that the United States and China should “align” on a green economy. The senses. Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.) and Ted Cruz (R., Texas) argued that the move reflected the White House’s lenient stance toward China.

“It is no surprise that the Biden White House hired John Podesta, who has known ties to China. This White House does not understand that Beijing is our enemy and part of the New Axis of Evil,” said Blackburn at Free Washington Beacon. Cruz echoed Blackburn’s sentiment, calling it “not surprising that Biden officials are entangled with the [Chinese Communist Party]Cruz also expressed concern over Podesta’s nomination given that the green energy field “floats[s] on Chinese money.

The White House did not return a request for comment.

Prior to his role as Biden in the White House, Podesta served for eight years as president of the Center for American Progress (CAP), a liberal think tank that in a 2017 report praised China, arguing that Beijing had “[ed] clean energy bull by the horns” and embarked on a “really impressive” shift away from polluting energy sources such as coal. build new heat pumps later recognized this trend as “deeply concerning”.

Beyond the issue of climate change, CAP has also worked extensively with the China-US Exchange Foundation, a registered foreign agent supported by the Chinese Communist Party’s foreign-influenced branch. During a 2013 speech, Podesta credited the foundation with providing the U.S. and Chinese governments with “an important set of recommendations” to “bring our two nations together.”

Podesta’s new role advising Biden on climate could lead the president to declare a national climate emergency, E&E News reported Tuesday.