Thread by @scottwongDC

NEW: Asian American Dems jostle for top slot on new GOP select China committee

#AAPI lawmakers want to ensure CCP panel doesn't stoke more anti-Asian rhetoric and xenophobia as it confronts threats from Beijing. They're divided over who should lead them nbcnews.com/politics/congr…

.@CAPAC Chair @RepJudyChu is personally pushing @RepJeffries to appoint @RepAndyKimNJ as top Dem on China committee.

Kim also making case to Jeffries. But @CongressmanRaja & @RepRoKhanna want to be ranking member too. nbcnews.com/politics/congr…

“It was important to have somebody in that ranking position who not only had the expertise ... but also who could push back at xenophobic rhetoric,” @RepJudyChu told me.

“This committee could devolve into that ... when there is that xenophobic rhetoric, AAPIs pay the price.”

There are non-AAPI members who also want to be ranking member, like Slotkin.

But one @CAPAC member put it to me this way:

“If they did an Africa select committee, would we not pick an African American member? Think about that."

.@RepJudyChu has told Leader @RepJeffries she would like to see four @CAPAC members named to the select China panel. Dems have 7 slots total.

— Kim (RM)
— Krishnamoorthi
— Khanna
— Takano

.@CongressmanRaja, angling for Ranking of China panel, tells me:

The GOP “made it very clear that the committee is primarily focused on … counter intelligence and economic espionage issues which have been the focus of my own work, especially on the Intelligence Committee”

.@RoKhanna: “I represent an Asian-American majority district, wrote a long piece in Foreign Affairs on rebalancing trade with China to reduce tensions and would have the confidence of progressive and CAPAC colleagues”

foreignaffairs.com/china/ro-khann…