First on CNN: Former Trump national security advisers among witnesses testifying at House hearing on China

By Alayna Treene and Zachary Cohen, CNN

The House select committee on China will feature four high-profile witnesses during its first hearing Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET, including former President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, and top China expert and former deputy national security adviser, Matthew Pottinger, sources familiar with the hearing told CNN.

This is the first primetime hearing that any GOP-led committee has held since Republicans took over the House majority in January. The panel’s top Republican, Chairman Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, is hoping to make a splash with his witness list, which is aimed at proving his panel’s commitment to leading a serious, bipartisan investigation that could result in substantial legislative action, the sources said.

Other witnesses include Tong Yi, former secretary to one of China’s leading dissidents and current human rights activist, Wei Jingsheng, and Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing.

The witnesses will help the committee lay out what they view are the specific threats China poses as a global competitor, as well as the panel’s top priorities on how to counter Beijing’s aggression.

McMaster and Pottinger are significant witnesses for the committee to showcase. They are widely respected on both sides of the aisle and played key roles in how the Trump administration formulated and carried out its agenda toward China.

Pottinger, in particular, worked for Trump from the start of his administration until resigning in the immediate aftermath of the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. He testified publicly last year before the House select committee on the January 6 attack, earning him a nod of approval from the left.

“Our national security was harmed in a different way by the sixth of January and that is, I think it emboldened our enemies by helping give them ammunition to feed a narrative that our system of government doesn’t work, that the United States is in decline,” Pottinger said at the hearing. “China, the Putin regime in Russia, Tehran, they’re fond of pushing those kinds of narratives — and by the way, they’re wrong.”

Meanwhile, Tong will be a crucial witness who can speak personally to one of the committee’s top priorities — highlighting China’s human rights abuses and why the US must do more to curb its global influence. Tong was arrested and imprisoned for her involvement with Jingsheng and the democracy movement in 1993, and was later released in 1996 before going into exile in the US.

Paul is expected to outline the reasoning for reducing Beijing’s role in the US economy and preventing American companies from ending up in the hands of Chinese state-owned firms and investors. He’s also been a leading voice on increasing domestic manufacturing, and can speak to why the panel believes the US must stop China’s leverage at every angle.

Tuesday’s hearing is the committee’s first test to showcase what the panel is setting out to do: leading serious investigations in a bipartisan way that can get the backing of the majority of the public.

Both Gallagher and Illinois Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the committee’s highest ranking Democrat, have publicly touted the panel’s efforts to remain bipartisan in tone and practice, and both have pointed to the types of members on the panel as proof that their work will be a departure from the highly politicized investigations other top committees are conducting.

“We’re not going to turn this into a partisan, bomb-throwing committee,” Gallagher recently told CNN. “Now, there may be meaningful disagreement on the issues. There are plenty of areas where Democrats and Republicans disagree on China, but overall, I think everyone’s trying to row in the same direction.”

That commitment to bipartisanship, however, was recently tested by the controversial approach the Biden administration took in handling the Chinese spy balloon that recently flew over the US. How the committee addresses that approach will be a key sign of whether they can honor their vow to remain civil and work together.

McMaster and Pottinger will likely take questions on Tuesday about what the Trump administration knew regarding the transiting of three suspected Chinese spy balloons over the continental US during Trump’s time in office. Committee aides told CNN to watch the line of questioning from different members as a sign of whether the panel can remain unified on the public stage.

Taiwan center stage

While Tuesday’s hearing is expected to largely focus on China’s human rights abuses, one of the most pressing issues the committee will ultimately delve into is how the US should defend Taiwan against growing Chinese aggression in the region.

The hearing comes after a congressional delegation, led by select committee member Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, traveled to Taiwan where they met with top officials to discuss the threats posed by China.

Khanna worked extremely hard to ensure that this trip was not seen as overly provocative to China, focusing on the economic relationship and publicly stating his interest in visiting China as well, according to an aide, who noted that it was not cancelled in the wake of the Chinese spy balloon incident because he believed it would send the wrong message.

The congressman met with Morris Chang, the founder of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, who, according to the aide, typically does not meet with delegations, but wanted to meet with Khanna because of his Silicon Valley ties and the role as a co-author of the CHIPS and Science Act.

Addressing challenges posed by China’s role in the semiconductor supply chain is a top priority for the China select committee and has bipartisan support, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Khanna told CNN in a phone interview Wednesday that he hopes the committee will have the opportunity to hear directly from top officials like CIA Director Bill Burns and discuss strategies for avoiding conflict with China at a time of potentially increasing tensions.

“The committee is working in a way that is consistent with American foreign policy,” he said, pointing to the work of former Presidents Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter that has “stood the test of time for almost 50 years and avoided conflict in the straights.”

“It would behoove us to understand the rationale behind that policy, the delicate balance the US has managed to strike,” Khanna added, noting it would be helpful for the panel to address those topics, including the administration’s policy related to Taiwan, with Burns and Secretary of State Antony Blinken in particular.

Senior US national security officials, including Burns, have increasingly warned that the Chinese military has been ordered by President Xi Jinping to prepare for a potential invasion of Taiwan — a move that would dramatically escalate tensions and increase the risk of conflict with the US.

“We clearly see indications of Xi instructing his military to be ready” for an invasion later in this decade, Burns said at the Munich Security Conference, referring to Taiwan.

While “that doesn’t mean that an invasion is going to occur,” it underscores how the “risks increase the farther you get into this decade and beyond,” he added.

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