Protesters disrupted the first hearing of a House select committee investigating potential threats that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) poses to the country and U.S.-China competition late Tuesday, arguing that the country should cooperate with China instead of competing with it.
“China is not our enemy,” read a sign held by Olivia DiNucci, an organizer for CODEPINK: Women for Peace, which advocates against the United States engaging in wars and “regime change efforts.”
A CODEPINK release states that DiNucci delivered a message that “The American people need cooperation, not competition with China” before she was taken out of the chamber where the meeting was happening.
After DiNucci was escorted out, a man that CODEPINK identified as a Washington, D.C. resident named “Hector M.” stood up with a sign saying “Stop Asian hate” and yelled “This committee is about saber-rattling; it is not about peace.”
Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), who serves as the chair of the committee, said later during the hearing that the committee has asked the Capitol Police about what happened to the protesters. He said they will defer to the police in these types of situations, but he is “certainly not pressing charges.”
Capitol Police told The Hill in a statement that the two protesters were arrested for demonstrating inside the Capitol, which is prohibited under D.C. law.
The CODEPINK release argues the committee hearing will promote hatred toward Asian Americans.
“The formation of this committee and these hearings do nothing but drive hate on Asian Americans,” the release states. “This obscene amount of warmongering devastates the people and the pristine environment of the Asia-Pacific.”
It states that the U.S. has more than 250 bases in the Indo-Pacific region to “encircle” China that are destroying the natural habitat of islands. It added that the people, communities, water and lands of…
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