China panel chair Moolenaar demands answers on Nvidia CEO's alleged affair with a Chinese spy

Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., said on a Tuesday appearance on CNBC's "Squawk Box" that Congress needs to "get to the bottom" of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's an affair with an alleged Chinese spy.

Moolenaar, who chairs the House Select Committee on China, said he wants to know whether Huang shared privileged information with a Chinese spy; whether Huang was influenced to lobby against preventing chip sales to China; and whether China was given preference in purchasing Nvidia's limited supply of advanced chips.

And he urged a thorough internal investigation of Huang.

"If it becomes less of an investigation, more of damage control, that's not going to work because people have to have confidence," Moolenaar said.

"We're dealing with the country, the Chinese Communist Party that is a foremost adversary, that's funding wars and supporting Russia, supporting Iran, North Korea," he said. "And we have basically a Cold War race with technology. We cannot allow the premier company at the forefront of this to, in some way, be irresponsible."

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said in a press conference on Monday that "we're going to need a full briefing specifically as it relates to the Nvidia issue so we can all get to the bottom of what has happened and what the implications are in terms of national security"

Moolenaar co-authored a letter with Florida Rep. Brian Mast and Arkansas Rep. Rick Crawford on Nov. 5 asking Huang to appear before the Select Committee on China, the House Foreign Affairs Committee and House Select Committee on Intelligence. Mast chairs the foreign affairs panel, and Crawford chairs intelligence.

"Recent reports raise significant national security concerns regarding the PRC's access to sensitive U.S. technology and information," the three Republicans wrote.