CNN Newsroom: Interview With Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI)

Interview

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Well, I'm certainly optimistic about our ability to come together on a few key areas and hone in. Certainly, there are differences of opinion in approach. There were some members on the other side of the aisle, calling for a decoupling. Someone who representing the manufacturing heartland of the Midwest in southeastern Michigan. We certainly cannot decouple from China, particularly, as it relates to exports and trade and the securitization of the supply chain.

And so, I think we need to be strategic. And I take this as a wake-up call for our economy. Certainly, hearing from General McMaster and some of the national security considerations under way cannot be underestimated. And we need to be eyes wide open with what we are facing with regard to this competition. But if you hear Mr. McMaster, he's talking about competition as a way to de-escalate. We don't need to keep ratcheting up the rhetoric and that's the tone I'm trying to set on the committee.

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Well, this is certainly a really unique moment for us as federal lawmakers to set the tone. Because you know that private industry is going to chase the dollar or open markets are being exploited. I certainly heard General McMaster say, hey, we're going to have peace through strength. We want to have economic strength as well as national security strength.

And we're certainly not negotiating from a place of strength when China is producing 85 percent of the electric vehicle batteries when we're leading an automotive revolution here in the United States of America with the bipartisan infrastructure bill that was passed along with the Inflation Reduction Act. It's our manufacturers who I see every single day doing these things.

But certainly, Mr. Pottinger, also, he shed light on a very specific lens of the conflict. And I think that that was teased out a little bit. And it's not a conflict, it's a competition. But certainly, areas where maybe there is some friction. So, how do we take the rhetoric down? How do we promote peace through strength? It's through investing in our industrial base.

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Well, there's certainly a lot of overlap with the other select committee, bipartisan select committee in the Congress, that is focused on coronavirus very specifically. Not only its origins, but obviously, our response to the pandemic.

And I want to take this back to trust. Because we need to be operating on a global playing field, level playing field, through trust. And certainly, there's been many instances where we haven't had that level of trust with the CCP. If it's with regard to currency manipulation, trade, tariffs, why does it cost so much for us to sell our trucks into their country, versus what is happening with the tariffs on the back end here in our country. And so, those are economic interests.

But this is specific to a national security interest. And it also circles around trust. We need to achieve better trust. And it's got to be through strengthening our own channels here in our federal government. We've heard from the Alliance of Manufacturing yesterday. And one of the witnesses who talked about those investments and those needs. So, it's a confluence of factors.

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Yup.

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