Threats from China, Russia and elsewhere occupy a good part of U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz’s mind these day, and he said in an interview last week that the passage of a $768 billion defense bill will help the U.S. military’s readiness.
Waltz, a member of the Armed Services Committee, joined with 169 Democrats and 193 fellow Republicans Tuesday to pass the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, which raises the budget by $25 billion more than President Joe Biden requested. The bill also includes some 10 provisions Waltz inserted, including:
- Prohibiting the purchase of goods from Chinese Communist Party forced labor camps in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region;
- Preventing Chinese communists and Russians access to American missile defense sites;
- Prohibiting the Defense Department from providing financial support to the Taliban, the leading party of Afghanistan following the U.S. withdrawal in August.
“If you look at the crises all over the world, you look at the rise of China — their navy is now larger than ours,” Waltz told The News-Journal. “They have more in space than we do. The ongoing Russian aggression, Iran racing toward a nuclear weapon and on and on … Republican and Democrat members in the Congress came together and said defense needs more. This is not the time for a defense cut. That’s exactly what (President Joseph) Biden was proposing.”
Waltz, who last February proposed a U.S. boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, scheduled to start Feb. 4, also reacted to Biden’s announcement this week that he will not send any government officials to China, calling it a “diplomatic” boycott.
“I’m glad he’s done it, but it’s not enough,” Waltz said.
Both U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Florida, and Waltz have argued that the International Olympic Committee is inconsistent when it claims to not “do politics,” allowing athletes to compete.
“I remind the IOC that they got involved in politics when it came to South Africa, when it came to apartheid,” Waltz said.
“Not only did they ban any Olympic games from happening in South Africa for nearly 30 years, the IOC banned the South African Olympic team itself, and those athletes, from being able to compete anywhere in the world. So when it comes to one million Muslim leaders in concentration camps, the erasing of Tibetan culture, the persecution of Christians, stamping out freedom in Hong Kong, aggression in the South China Sea, threatening Taiwan and not cooperating with any type of investigation on COVID, which killed 5 million people, you know, what more does the IOC need to see to take more meaningful actions?
“The IOC should be ashamed of themselves for putting our athletes in the position of compromising their values in order to be able to compete,” Waltz continued. “The American companies that are Olympics sponsors — Visa, Airbnb, Proctor & Gamble, Coca-Cola — should be ashamed of themselves as well. They love to tout their support … for social justice here, and yet are perfectly fine to turn a blind eye when it comes to their balance sheet in China. That hypocrisy I find disgusting and we need to call it out.”
After Russia troops amassed near the border with Ukraine, threatening an invasion, Biden had a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin warning him not to carry it out, and that if he does, the U.S. will impose economic sanctions.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, meeting with reporters on Tuesday, said Biden has promised and delivered Russia consequences over the poisoning of Putin rival Alexei Navalny and the SolarWinds cyberattack.
“And if Russia chooses to take these actions in Ukraine, he will do the same,” Sullivan said of Biden. “He’s not doing this to saber-rattle. He’s not doing it to make idle threats. He’s doing it to be clear and direct with both the Russians and with our European allies about the best way forward.”
Waltz doesn’t agree.
“I think we should be taking a stronger stand now to prevent that invasion, to make it clear that the cost will be so high not just economically, as Biden had mentioned, but militarily as well, that their calculus, that Putin’s calculus, will change.
Waltz said that means providing air defense and anti-ship weaponry to the Ukranians, but not U.S. “boots on the ground.”
“The problem with taking the sanctions approach is that when Nord Stream 2, the gas line that goes from Russia to Germany, comes fully online, (Putin) has western Europe hostage through that gas, and that’s why lifting the sanctions on Nord Stream 2 was so devastating, because it gives Russia that checkmate over a unified European response,” Waltz said. “And so in order for sanctions to be effective, they have to be effective in both euros and dollars. And with Nord Stream 2, Russia has taken Europe off the table.”
Sullivan countered: “When it comes to Nord Stream 2, the fact is that gas is not currently flowing through the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which means that it’s not operating, which means that it’s not leverage for Putin. Indeed, it is leverage for the West, because if Vladimir Putin wants to see gas flow through that pipeline, he may not want to take the risk of invading Ukraine.”
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