A bipartisan watchdog on China may go dark — that would be a mistake.

With only one week remaining before the midterm elections, the current leadership of the House of Representatives is quietly deciding committee structures for the 120th session of Congress which begins in January. One decision will matter more than most — whether to keep the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.

In its short existence, The select committee, originally founded by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), has proven to be an effective and bipartisan vehicle to address technology transfer and security issues with China.

Co-chairs from the two parties ensure that the committee works under an investigative and recommendation-only mandate and has a healthy track record of unanimous or near-unanimous reports. It is the rare venue in Washington where both sides of the aisle agree. To lose such a congressional initiative would remove one of the only functional bipartisan groups currently in the House that deal with China.

But the select committee’s preservation in the next Congress cannot be taken for granted. Per House rules, select committees like this one expire when each congressional session ends; consequently, maintaining this one will require an official mandate in the new........

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