The House select committee on China is hosting a prime-time hearing on “the Chinese Communist Party’s Threat to America” on Tuesday evening as part of a Republican-led push to warn about the challenge posed by Beijing.

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), chairman of the new China-focused committee, gave a sense of the direction things would go when he held a press conference in New York City this weekend outside the location of a former Chinese “police station” in lower Manhattan.

The list of witnesses for the 7 p.m. hearing Tuesday, which include two former Trump administration China hawks, a Chinese human rights advocate, and an advocate of bringing manufacturing back to the United States from China, also previewed the tough line that his committee is set to take with China’s authoritarian leader, Xi Jinping.

“Our hope is to come away from this with a better sense of why the CCP is a threat and why someone in northeast Wisconsin or other parts of the country should care about that threat,” Gallagher told the Washington Post of his hopes for Tuesday’s hearing.

Matt Pottinger, a former Trump deputy national security adviser, is among the four witnesses. Pottinger called it "inexcusable" this month that there still hasn't been a full investigation into COVID-19's origins, primarily blaming Beijing's continued obstruction but also pointing to failings by the U.S. government. Pottinger has said publicly since early 2021 that the circumstantial evidence of SARS-CoV-2 leaking from a Wuhan lab "far outweighs" that of a natural origin.

Multiple reports this weekend revealed the Energy Department believes with “low confidence” that the coronavirus started at the Wuhan lab. In 2021, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released an assessment stating that one U.S. intelligence agency, believed to be the FBI, assessed with "moderate confidence" that COVID-19 most likely emerged from a lab in Wuhan, while four U.S. spy agencies and the National Intelligence Council believed with just "low confidence" that COVID-19 most likely had a natural origin.

H.R. McMaster, a former Trump national security adviser who is also testifying, weighed in last week about China’s support for the Russian war effort in Ukraine.

"China is already supporting Russia's war-making machine,” McMaster told CBS News, citing China purchasing 60% more oil from Russia than it previously had. “So, they're feeding Putin’s ATM that he needs to keep the war going." McMaster also noted that China was sending Russia microelectronics and other dual-use technologies that Russian military equipment requires to keep fighting.

"So the question in Xi’s court right now is: Do you want to go all-in with Russia and really risk an accelerated rending of the U.S. financial and economic relationship with China?” McMaster said. “Because that is what I think is in the cards if they provide lethal aid to Russia.”

McMaster also weighed in last month on U.S. Air Force Gen. Michael Minihan’s warning that China may invade Taiwan as early as 2025.

“Xi Jinping has said he’s gonna do it, and in many of his speeches, he seems to be preparing the Chinese people for war. And, of course, it is our military’s job to be ready,” McMaster said. “Our Defense Department has to be ready, and they have to make their ability to fight and win their top priority because that’s what gets you deterrence, is convincing the People’s Liberation Army that they can’t accomplish their objectives on Taiwan through the use of force.”

Tong Yi, a Chinese human rights advocate and the former secretary to Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng, will also testify at the hearing.

The final witness Tuesday is Scott Paul, the president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, which said it believes that “an innovative and growing manufacturing base is vital to America’s economic and national security, as well as providing good jobs for future generations.”

Paul wrote in 2021 that “a change in U.S. policy won't erase decades of missteps on China, but getting that policy right will be a major step in the right direction."

Gallagher has repeatedly emphasized his desire that the China select committee be bipartisan, including during a Sunday show appearance this weekend with ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL).

“Let me say how excited I am to work with ranking member Krishnamoorthi. ... He is smart and clear-eyed when it comes to the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party,” Gallagher said on Face the Nation.

As a follow-up to the Tuesday hearing, Gallagher previewed that he also intended to press the NBA, Disney, and other U.S. companies about their relationships with China.