Congress Hears CCP Weaponizes US Courts to Silence Critics, Harm American Interests
So what is Congress going to do about it? Wait for We the People to get pissed again?
Lawfare orchestrated by the Chinese regime causes a chilling effect in the United States, witnesses said.
img credit: Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) participates in a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, on April 01, 2025. Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
via Eva Fu, Reporter, The Epoch Times (excerpt)
WASHINGTON—The Chinese Communist Party has been exploiting the U.S. courts to censor critics and advance its own interests at the expense of the United States, experts told a congressional panel on July 22.
The regime’s scheme, also called legal warfare or lawfare, includes using third parties to file lawsuits against the regime’s targets and burdening them with heavy legal fees, as well as gaming U.S. laws to shield Chinese bad actors from consequences, the panel members said.
“Beijing works to shape U.S. laws and regulations and their implementation, in many cases via U.S. entities that have been co-opted by dependence on or resources from the PRC,” said Emily de La Bruyère, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, using the acronym for People’s Republic of China.
The regime has proved itself willing to “use the U.S. legal system to punish those who stand in its way,” she said.
“All of that is not new,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who chairs the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, said in his opening statement.
“We see it in criminal operations, in human trafficking, in drug smuggling, in commercial fraud, and that is not limited to any one country, but the fact that it’s backed by a powerful country who is using and weaponizing this is particularly disturbing.
“This is over and above the 10,000 attacks a day that occur on the internet. This is over and above their spying.
“This is over and above the abuses that occur on companies in China.
“This is, in fact, using our patent system, our trademark system, and our courts to their advantage. We take this seriously, that we will not be abused any longer.”
‘Cartel’
One victim of China’s lawfare is Charlotte Pipe and Foundry, a leading U.S. iron casting and pipe manufacturing company.
At the hearing, its senior vice president, Bradford Muller, said that the company has spent roughly $7 million to defend its products against Chinese rivals, which sell at otherwise impossibly low prices after evading U.S. tariffs through 3rd countries.
By accident, the foundry discovered a Chinese entity stealing its brand identity at a trade show in Singapore, where a man passed out business cards bearing their exact company name and logo.
However, the card pointed to a building in Shanghai. Charlotte Pipe and Foundry hired a Chinese law firm to fight their case in China, but the effort went nowhere, Muller said, noting that smaller businesses can’t afford the same level of advocacy and many are now going out of business.
img credit: Rare earths undergoing processing in large steel pipes are cooled off with dripping water at a factory in Baotou City, Inner Mongolia, on April 21, 2011. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
Muller’s experience highlights one of many ways the tactic can play out.
Through intellectual property lawsuits, …