EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Carlos Gimenez, a member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), said China is the "greatest threat" to the United States and that President-elect Donald Trump will bring "peace through strength, not peace through appeasement."
Gimenez, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital the CCP is the "adversary we have to watch, both militarily and economically."
"China is making great strides around the world," Gimenez said, pointing to its capacity in production, specifically with defense materials and weapons. "It surpasses that of the United States’ and we have seen that we are lacking."
Gimenez said the Russian-Ukraine war has "demonstrated to us that our defense capacity has been degraded over the decades."
"It shows we could run out of munitions fairly quickly if we had a prolonged fight with China," he said, warning that China also "has the ability to produce many more ships than we do."
Gimenez said the U.S. is "trying to do catch-up."
"We have to update how we do things at the Pentagon, we have to be more nimble, we have to get the private sector involved, and we have to eliminate bureaucracy that has hampered our ability to protect ourselves," he said.
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But as for the approach to the China threat, Gimenez blasted the Biden administration, specifically President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
"I think China, with Biden and Blinken, thought they could do just about anything they wanted or thought they could fool them," he said. "The Biden administration was always exhibiting weakness and trying to appease our enemies, whereas Trump knows exactly who our friends are, who our enemies are and is going to put the security of America first."
Gimenez added, "He understands that the security of America lies in peace through strength, not peace through appeasement."
As for confronting the threat in the coming months, Gimenez pointed to the importance of the U.S. being energy independent.
Gimenez said he wants to "make America the energy spigot of the world, where the world goes to get energy is America."
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"It would help our financial situation, our balance sheet, and give us the ability to help our friends and weaken our enemies," he said.
"We could use our energy dominance as an economic weapon against our enemies, helping our friends and hurting our enemies," he continued. "We can substitute Iranian and Venezuelan oil with American oil, Russian oil with American oil, and then starve those countries which are allied with China of their greatest source of revenue and then impede their ability to help China."
"If China finds itself isolated in the world, I think that’s the best way we can contain this threat," he said. "But we have to project strength and the willingness to confront aggression by the CCP."
As for the House Select Committee on the CCP, he said they have "much more work to do."
"The China threat is increasing," he said, noting that the committee is bipartisan in its nature and that members on both sides of the aisle have "bought into that China is the threat and that China will be the threat."
"It’s not climate change, it’s China," he said. "And we have to confront that threat or live in a world that is dominated by the Chinese Communist Party."
"And Trump is going to project strength and back those words with action."
