WASHINGTON —Today, the House Small Business Committee held a hearing examining how problems in the relationship between the United States and the People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.) is impacting Main Street.
During the hearing, Ranking Member Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY) called for a strategy for competing with China centered around investing in small manufacturers and protecting innovation without resorting to broad tariffs, discriminatory lending policies, or anti-Chinese rhetoric.
Velázquez acknowledged the threat China poses to American small businesses and technological leadership, while warning against xenophobic policies that echo some of the darkest chapters in U.S. history.
"The P.R.C. is America's foremost strategic competitor. The practices it has employed to bolster its state-controlled firms, corner markets, and undermine free competition around the world are hurting America's technological leadership and small businesses,” said Ranking Member Velázquez. “The federal government must protect our national security while avoiding the slippery slope that is ethnic profiling. That means tackling complicated problems with nuanced solutions and examining policies based on their merits."
Velázquez pointed to the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act as bills that have made real progress toward ensuring small businesses can compete with China — investing in domestic manufacturing, workforce development, and the broader ecosystem small businesses need to thrive. She sharply criticized the Trump administration for undermining those investments.
Dr. Rush Doshi of Georgetown University and the Council on Foreign Relations told the Committee that small manufacturers are the backbone of U.S. supply chains and urged Congress to respond to China's coordinated industrial strategy by supporting the SBIR and STTR programs, restoring the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, and scaling up investment in small business innovation.
"Small businesses are critical to America's industrial and technological future. Today our small businesses, particularly those involved in manufacturing, are facing unprecedented if not existential challenges as China mounts the most comprehensive industrial strategy any major power has ever attempted," said Dr. Doshi.
