On the recordApril 11, 2018
as we all know, our country is facing a lot of challenges, particularly overseas, and a lot of them are in the news--Iran, Syria, North Korea. When you look out across the landscape of what the big, long-term, geostrategic challenges are that face our Nation, in my view, there is no doubt that the No. 1 challenge economically and from a national security standpoint is the rise of China as a great power. We need to be thinking about that a lot more because that is going to be the issue our country faces, not just this year or next year but for decades. I come from the great State of Alaska. We are an Asia-Pacific State. We are always looking to that region--as a matter of fact, we are in that region. My hometown of Anchorage is closer to Tokyo than it is to Washington, DC. What I see as a positive on this issue--having been someone in this body for a little over 3 years, I have come down to the floor and talked a lot about this challenge, the rise of China. It is a little concerning that a couple of years ago nobody was talking about it. Very few people were talking about it, but that is changing, and I think that is positive. It is changing. This administration is focusing, and it is changing with my colleagues--Democrats and Republicans. Certainly, this is an area where, I think, there is a lot of agreement. I was just presiding for the last hour.…
