China Engaged in Illegal Territorial Expansion, Congress Hears

The CCP is engaged in a decades-long campaign of territorial expansion designed to prevent the U.S. from entering into direct conflict with it, experts said.

China's first domestically built aircraft carrier Shandong sails into Hong Kong waters as it arrives in Hong Kong on July 3, 2025. Peter Parks/AFP via Getty Images

Communist China is engaged in a decades-long attempt to expand its terrestrial and maritime claims without triggering an overt war, Congress has heard.

Speaking during an Oct. 7 hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said that multiple successive U.S. administrations had failed to counter China’s program of expansion because the regime’s actions fell below the threshold of international military conflict.