Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, today released the following statement on the reported Chinese Communist Party spy balloon flying over the United States:

“The Chinese Communist Party’s spy balloon flying over our country is a serious national security incursion that must have decisive consequences.

It is long past time that we as a nation have a more frank and sober conversation about the challenges and the costs of a strategic competition with China, which is what I have been pushing in the Foreign Affairs Committee and now again as Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

The Biden Administration must immediately take bold action to counter the great and growing threat posed by Xi Jinping’s Communist regime and safeguard our national security and the livelihoods of the American people.

A Communist dictatorship that brutally abuses, tortures and kills its own people cannot be trusted or appeased.

I will continue to work tirelessly to protect our great Nation from those who seek to harm or destroy it and ensure that the US always stands for freedom, justice, and the protection of human rights against the rising tide of authoritarianism.”