A US Congressional hearing on China's influence operations descended into a sharp confrontation over race, immigration, and national security on 27 June, after a Democratic lawmaker accused a witness of promoting discriminatory views targeting Chinese Americans. The clash unfolded at the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and exposed deep divisions over how far Washington should go in countering Beijing's reach inside the United States.

The Exchange That Ignited the Room

The most heated moment came when Indian American Congressman Ro Khanna confronted Michael Lucci, founder and chief executive of State Armor, over a past social media post. The post had suggested that individuals born as US citizens in American territories but raised in China should have their citizenship status reconsidered.

'I'd like to offer you an opportunity to correct the record for such a bigoted and xenophobic statement,' Khanna said. 'Do you believe millions of Chinese Americans who gained citizenship through birthright should be denaturalised, or are you simply a racist?'

Lucci pushed back, insisting his remarks were narrowly targeted at individuals born briefly in US territories who then returned immediately to China and spent their entire lives there. 'I think that if they have practically zero nexus to the United States America other than they were born in a territory, I think it's worth considering that, yes,' he said when pressed on whether such cases warranted review.

Khanna Presses on Scope and Intent

Congressman Khanna repeatedly challenged Lucci on whether the proposed citizenship review would apply exclusively to individuals connected to China or extend to those linked to other countries — a line of questioning aimed at testing whether the policy was conduct-based or ethnicity-based.

'We'll put out this exchange and how the American people can decide when you're talking about eliminating birthright citizenship for Chinese Americans, whether they think you're a racist,' Khanna said. 'I think a lot of Asian Americans, and many Americans will think you are.'

Lucci denied the allegation and pointed to his own household. 'My household has eight people. I'm the only one with no Chinese ethnicity in my entire household,' he said later in the hearing, arguing the debate should centre on national security policy rather than charges of racism.

Civil Rights Groups Warn Against Ethnic Profiling

John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, told lawmakers that the threat posed by the Chinese government was real — but warned against replacing 'evidence-based enforcement' with 'ethnicity-based suspicion.'

Yang urged Congress to ensure that counter-espionage policies focused on conduct rather than ancestry. He cautioned that sweeping measures could deter scientists, researchers, and students from choosing the United States. 'A targeted approach is not necessarily a softer approach,' Yang said. 'Rather, it is a more effective one.'

The Broader Policy Fault Line

The hearing reflects a defining tension in Washington as the US government intensifies efforts to counter Chinese espionage, technology theft, and foreign influence operations. While there is broad bipartisan consensus that China represents a major strategic challenge, lawmakers remain divided over how to bolster national security without eroding civil liberties or discouraging the high-skilled immigrants who underpin American innovation.

Notably, this is not the first time a China-focused Congressional proceeding has veered into questions of racial profiling — critics have long argued that broad national-security framing risks stigmatising an entire ethnic community. How Congress resolves that tension will shape both US competitiveness and the civil rights landscape for millions of Asian Americans.