China is a threat.
That’s the message South Dakota’s lone congressman had for members of the Sioux Falls Rotary on Monday.
Dusty Johnson, R-SD, is a member of the bi-partisan House Select Committee on China. The group is tasked with studying the US’s economic dependency on China and ending their ability to access Americans’ data and intellectual property.
On Monday, Johnson said China is not just a military threat.
“Economically, we need to strategically decouple. I don’t have a problem if we’re buying cheap t-shirts from China. I don’t have a problem if they’re buying our soybeans” Johnson told Sioux Falls Rotarians. "But, ladies and gentlemen, it’s a major problem that there are a suite of life saving pharmaceuticals that we can only get from China. It is a problem that 95 percent of the world’s computer chips are made in just Taiwan or China.”
Johnson’s words come as rhetoric surrounding the upcoming B-21 Raider—a new nuclear capable stealth bomber—is directed at China.
The B-21 bomber's first mission is set for Ellsworth Airforce Base in Box Elder.
Earlier this month, US Senator Mike Rounds called the B-21 a “China deterrence weapon.” Rounds sits on the Senate armed services committee.
Johnson said the US can make better use of its annual $900 billion-dollar military budget.
When the Select Committee on China ran a fictionalized war game scenario involving a Chinese attack on Taiwan, Johnson said, "we run out of long-range strike assets in day three or four of the conflict."
"That is exceedingly bad news," Johnson added. "So, we need to make sure we’ve got more long-range strike assets. Those would be very very smart missiles that might be on a new B-21 platform that would be headquartered out at Ellsworth, for instance.”
Johnson said the US must strengthen ties with allies in the Indo-Pacific region, including Japan and Australia.
