China poses a threat to America’s senior citizens through drug supply chains, financial scams and data privacy, a congressional hearing highlighted on Wednesday, with lawmakers and witnesses framing it as a national security issue.
“Fifty years ago, we never would have given the Soviets the kind of leeway we give China: the access they have to our economy and our information, the dependence they enjoy from our supply chains,” said Rick Scott, a Republican senator from Florida, adding that the US needed to “get serious about this before it’s too late”.
The hearing, titled “Counting the Cost: Communist China’s Toll on Older Americans’ Health, Finances and Security” covered several issues affecting ageing Americans, including China’s dominance in pharmaceutical ingredients, as well as global drug supply chains.
“China’s weaponisation of supply chains is not theoretical. China has made controlling global supply chains an explicit strategic goal,” said Chris Slevin, from the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC).
All four witnesses at the Senate Special Committee on Ageing hearing were from the USCC, which does not have lawmaking authority but is authorised by Congress and can be influential on legislation.
The USCC and the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) are bipartisan congressional panels set up to strengthen scrutiny on China in the early 2000s ahead of its accession to the World Trade Organization.
In recent years, concerns have grown that China could dominate the world’s pharmaceutical industry, particularly due to America’s reliance on Chinese producers of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).
China supplies 87 per cent of US antibiotic APIs and 80 to 90 per cent of global API production, committee chairman Scott said, pointing to a Coalition for a Prosperous America report.
“This is not just a health security issue, but a national security issue,” said ranking member Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York who co-convened the hearing.
“In the case of a crisis or conflict between us and China, our country cannot be reliant on China for the bulk of our essential medicines, like antibiotics or the ingredients we need to make them.”
Estimates of America’s reliance on Chinese APIs vary. A 2025 Brookings Institution report puts the figure at roughly a quarter of drug volume sold in the US, but acknowledges that one area known for its high exposure to Chinese APIs is antibiotics.
Additionally, US seniors have been impacted by America’s ongoing fentanyl crisis, Congress heard. Previously, the US has characterised China as the primary source of precursor chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl, with Beijing feeling unfairly targeted over the crisis that has killed thousands of Americans.
Elsewhere in the hearing, financial scams were highlighted, as well as data privacy, with older Americans holding the majority of the nation’s wealth and medical histories.
The United States’ “economic and national security, and the lives of our citizens are threatened” because it has been “asleep at the wheel”, said Jon Husted, a Republican senator from Ohio.
America has a rapidly ageing population, with the median age climbing to 39.4 in 2025 from 35.6 in 2001, according to the US Census Bureau.
President Donald Trump’s crackdown on legal and illegal immigration is compounding these pressures by contributing to workforce shortages and restricting the influx of new residents.
China is also struggling with a demographic crisis. Nearly 30 per cent of the Chinese population is expected to be aged over 65 by 2050, whereas for the US, it will be more than 20 per cent.
There were over 300 million people in China over the age of 60 by late 2024, around 22 per cent of the population.
Today’s China also has one of the lowest birth rates in the world. The country’s low immigration levels and decades-long one-child policy have both contributed to this, leading to the policy coming to an end in 2015. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
