Tuberville Warns of Threats the CCP Poses to American Seniors

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) spoke with Commissioners of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission Joshua Hodges, Leland Miller, Reva Price, and Chris Slevin during a Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing. During the hearing, Sen. Tuberville spoke with the witnesses about the threat China poses to our pharmaceutical industry. He also spoke with them about the numerous scam centers across the region that are exploiting Americans' data and identities.

Read Sen. Tuberville's remarks below or watch on YouTube or Rumble.

TUBERVILLE: "Thank you, Commissioners, for being here. Let's start where you just finished. How safe do we feel about the ingredients in pharmaceuticals from China? And how can we depend on that safety?"

SLEVIN: "It's hard to know without the data, which is I think the primary recommendation that this Commission has made thus far on the issue. It's hard to know what to correct for if we don't have the data, and if we don't have the visibility into the supply chains and into inspections. The FDA has authority to inspect overseas. It's hard to execute on that. The unannounced visits to factories are hard to execute on. So, there is reason the commission is concerned."

TUBERVILLE: "So, we just pretty much take it for granted that they're gonna do the right thing. Right? Because we don't make it much here, right?"

SLEVIN: "That's right. The last several decades, we've seen the production increasingly offshored. And so, the proximity that our agencies have to inspect unannounced is more difficult to execute when the vast majority of facilities or overseas, particularly in China."

TUBERVILLE: "Thank you.

Mr. Miller, China is known for its investment fraud and scam centers. What do these criminal enterprises look like? And is the Chinese Communist Party or [its] syndicates with their protection or approval-are they approving these?"

MILLER: "I will give a little bit of an overview, and I welcome my colleague who's our expert on the scam centers to add on. I think that during our trip to Southeast Asia, we were blown away by the scope of these centers. They take up not just floors of buildings, but buildings and sometimes entire city blocks. They're very mobile. So, sometimes when something is shut down, they can pick up and reallocate down the block or to the other side of the city. And they are done with the implicit, at least, approval of the governing authorities in these South Asian countries and often the Chinese Communist Party. These entities are becoming more and more sophisticated. They're integrating AI. The things that they were doing five years ago doesn't touch the types of approaches they're using now in terms of voice, voice alterations, and other intricate ways of getting at people's personal histories, bringing them aboard and doing the pig butchering that my colleague was talking about in her testimony."

TUBERVILLE: "Ms. Price, would you like to add to that?"

PRICE: "Yeah. […] We have not found evidence that the Chinese government's role in the Southeast Asian-the direct role of the government's involvement, but there are links, as I mentioned, in my testimony. There are indications of them looking the other way. There are people in these syndicates who do other work with the Chinese government. So, there's a wink and a nod, so to speak, but direct government involvement-the FBI hasn't seen that yet or reported that publicly."

TUBERVILLE: "Seems like every time I call for customer service, it comes from India. Is that correct? Are they as much complicit?"

PRICE: "We didn't see any connection with those in India and the scam centers. But there are scam centers all over the world."

TUBERVILLE: "Yeah."

HODGES: "And to add on to that, sir, if you'll permit me. One other thing that we have witnessed is that whenever these scam centers are directed towards Chinese citizens, there is this sort of surprising ability to turn that off and target it. And so, again, it's not a direct linkage or evidence, but it is sort of an associated linkage that we've noticed."

TUBERVILLE: "Mr. Miller, it seems like we've either denied it or [agreed] that China is ahead of us in crypto. What's the consequences of that if we don't adjust one way or the other?"

MILLER: "So, China has a very interesting mentality towards crypto, in the broader crypto universe. You know, technically crypto is banned in the mainland. But Hong Kong, which is obviously China as well at this point, is a hot bed of crypto innovation. And I think it's the mindset of the policymakers in Beijing that they can keep the dirtier side of crypto ring fenced away from Mainland China, but they can go into some of the more innovative side of crypto in Hong Kong.

I think we need to be keeping a very close watch on this. This is something that our Hong Kong chapter has put particular focus on over the last two years."

TUBERVILLE: "Are we ahead or behind them? Mr. Hodges, you might wanna-"

HODGES: "Yeah. So, one thing to add to that, sir. And again, we haven't issued this as a formal recommendation or a Committee product yet. But one of the areas where we've started to look into is their efforts to use crypto overseas as a method of data collection. It's very well known that the Chinese apps soak up data.

And one thing we're starting to dig into is their Chinese apps using crypto in third party countries? That's gonna give them access to those individual's data. And again, make it harder for the United States to work with those governments or those populaces."

TUBERVILLE: "Thank you."

Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans' Affairs, HELP and Aging Committees.

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