Republicans in Congress tried to introduce a proposal for a committee dedicated to China near the end of the
116th Congress in 2021, abandoning the effort when negotiations between the Republican minority and then-Speaker
Nancy Pelosi faltered. A Republican-led China Task Force later emerged under
Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member
Michael McCaul which, though partisan in nature, introduced hundreds of policy proposals with often robust bipartisan support. It also worked with the country's
de facto diplomatic mission in Washington to advance U.S. military aid to
Taiwan. In October 2022, Rep.
Mike Gallagher of
Wisconsin told reporters that an independent China committee would "go a long way towards coordinating policy across the many committee jurisdictions and thereby create a more coherent approach to our China policy".In his response to his appointment as committee chair, Gallagher said:"The greatest threat to the United States is the Chinese Communist Party. The CCP continues to commit genocide, obscure the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, steal hundreds of billions of dollars worth of American intellectual property, and threaten Taiwan. The Select Committee on China will push back in bipartisan fashion before it’s too late."In an op-ed to
FoxNews.com, the two described the committee as the starting point for a holistic government approach that would build on the efforts of the previous Republican-led China Task Force and "ensure America is prepared to tackle the economic and security challenges posed by the CCP." In 2023, the committee issued a report describing an illegal biolab in
Reedley, California, and accused a lab worker and a citizen of China, of "transporting infectious diseases as well as stealing American and Canadian intellectual property". The report also alleged that the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) response had improperly failed to test the samples found in the lab, allegations that the CDC strongly disputed. The
Federal Bureau of Investigation closed its investigation, concluding that "there were no weapons of mass destruction on the property". In April 2024, Gallagher resigned from the House and Moolenaar took over as committee chair. In December 2025, intrusions were detected in staff email systems and later attributed to
Salt Typhoon. ==Committee leadership==