Speaker Johnson Appoints Former Trump Official To U.S.-China Commission

(ConservativeSense.com) – Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has appointed a former Trump official to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Cliff Sims will serve on the board, which monitors and reports to Congress on the national security implications of trade between the two nations and makes recommendations on strengthening America’s position against its primary global competitor.

Mr. Sims served as President Trump’s Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Strategy and Communications and received warm commendations for the new post. Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe commended Speaker Johnson for the appointment, adding, “Cliff played an integral role in our efforts to shift the Intelligence Community’s focus toward an adversarial China.”

Some commentators, such as Mike Allen on Axios, describe Sims as adversarial toward China and argue that his appointment signals that Johnson intends to take a “hawkish” approach to the communist nation.

Examples of Mr. Sims’s past approach to China include co-writing a letter to the House and Senate stating that the Chinese leadership sought to influence the 2020 Presidential election, and supporting the view that the coronavirus pandemic began in a research laboratory in Wuhan. Sims has also described China as “national security threat number one.”

Also appointed to the committee is Leland Miller, who founded and leads the China Beige Book International organization. In his bio, Mr. Miller describes himself as a “noted authority on China’s economy and financial system” and a regular contributor to a broad range of media outlets. Miller founded the China Beige Book group in 2010 to help American investors navigate the Chinese marketplace and its “notoriously black book economy.”

Other new appointees to the Economic and Security Review Commission include Trump security adviser Robert O’Brien, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, and Donald Trump Junior. Inside sources say Johnson is cleverly keeping Trump’s allies on board to maintain a solid relationship with the former President.