Exclusive: Rep. Jim Banks Demands Congress Take Action to Stop Chinese Propaganda from Infiltrating Congress

Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) on Wednesday called out the Democrats’ hypocrisy on China and demanded Congress take action on the Chinese propaganda that is delivered to Congress’s doorsteps daily, according to a letter exclusively obtained by Breitbart News.

“While the rhetoric in Congress is loud about ‘combatting Chinese influence’ and the need to be ‘tough on China,’ Americans will not take our claims seriously if we do not take action to prevent China from running propaganda in our own legislature,” Banks said in a letter sent to House Administration Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren.

“The Chinese party-state has successfully infiltrated our free press and even our governing legislature to spread its propaganda. This is unacceptable and the Congress has a duty to respond,” said Banks.

Banks’ letter follows his December 2019 request to the Committee on House Administration to hold a hearing on the growing dissemination of China Daily in the halls of Congress. China Daily is an English-language newspaper published by the Chinese Communist Party that gets delivered to each Congressional office at no charge:

A registered foreign agent in the United States, China Daily is owned and bankrolled by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China – the agency responsible for monitoring and controlling all media in the one-party state. In recent years, China has increased its media outreach globally through outlets such as China Daily. According to Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) receipts, the Chinese party-state has invested over $20 million on China Daily between 2017 and 2019.

Banks’ letter also called out the National News Agency for distributing China Daily to congressional offices, writing that “it openly advertises to its client: ‘We will work directly with you to achieve any congressional objective.’” China Daily arrives in offices alongside newspapers like Politico, which Banks fears would lend the newspaper credibility regarding China-U.S. relations.

Banks called on Congress to ban the unsolicited delivery of registered foreign agent publications to federal buildings:

It would also present an opportunity for the Committee to consider legislative responses to China’s foreign disinformation campaign. I recommend prohibiting unsolicited delivery of FARA-registered publications to federal buildings. This include China Daily and other state- owned propaganda outlets like Russia Today. I also recommend that the Committee consider legislation mandating the inclusion of a Disclaimer on all state-owned newspapers delivered to congressional offices. Such a Disclaimer should identify the newspaper as a propaganda and name the foreign government that produces and finances it.

Although top Democrats like Nancy Pelosi claim to support sanctions on China for “crimes against humanity targeting Uighurs,” in practice, it is a different story. According to the National Review, the Democrats stripped out a provision of their reconciliation bill prohibiting funding for entities implicated in the Uighur genocide.

The Dems new reconciliation bill removes funding prohibitions going to entities which utilize Uyghur forced labor in China.

Why in the world would Democrats want to give taxpayer dollars to corporations using Uyghur Muslim slaves???

— Jim Banks (@Jim_Banks) November 4, 2021

Banks’ letter comes five days after urging his Republican Study Committee (RSC) colleagues to vote against the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill because the climate change provisions would flow taxpayer dollars directly to the Chinese market.

“The Democrats’ push for ‘building back better’ will do exactly the opposite by making the US economy more intertwined with and dependent on communist China,” Banks said in an RSC memo. In the memo, Banks also addressed how the country “relies almost entirely on Chinese manufacturers for low-cost solar modules.”

Further, he noted that as Democrats included a provision to make U.S. Postal Service trucks electric vehicles, it is “sure to boost the Chinese economy at the expense of American taxpayers” because China produces close to half of the world’s electric vehicles.