US House Clears a largely Bipartisan Package of Bills to Counter China

AP

10:48 JST, September 13, 2024

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. House this week approved a sweeping package of bills to counter China’s influence, shoring up a largely bipartisan push to ensure America comes out ahead in the competition between the world’s superpowers.

The efforts would ban Chinese-made drones, limit China-linked biotech companies from access to the U.S. market, strengthen sanctions and deepen ties with Asian countries. The campaign to target Beijing this week shows how curbing China’s power has emerged as a rare issue of political consensus.

But some measures did pass along party lines, with Republicans arguing the need to protect national security when it comes to everything from education to farmland, and Democrats raising concerns about discrimination. The advocacy group Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote also warned about “overly broad anti-China rhetoric.”

One contentious measure seeks to revive a Trump-era program to root out Beijing’s spying in American universities and institutes. The bills all still need Senate approval.

“The House sent a powerful, bipartisan message to the Chinese Communist Party: the United States will not sit idly by,” said Republican Rep. John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington has said the measures would damage bilateral relations and U.S. interests. “China deplores and firmly opposes this and has lodged serious representations to the U.S. side,” spokesman Liu Pengyu said.

Here’s a look at key topics that the legislation focused on this week:

Technology

Tech dominated the measures, reflecting a “laser-focused” approach to limit the spread of Chinese technology in the U.S. and prevent Beijing from accessing American innovations, said Craig Singleton, senior China fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank.

The House backed a bill to prevent federal money from flowing to five biotech companies with Chinese ties, described as necessary to protect Americans’ health data and reduce reliance on China for U.S. medical supplies.

Another bill that cleared the House would outlaw, on national security grounds, devices from Chinese drone maker DJI, a dominant player in the global market.

“Allowing artificially cheap DJI drones to monopolize our sky has decimated American drone manufacturing and given our greatest strategic adversary eyes in our sky,” said Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y.

To patch a loophole in export controls, the House backed an amendment that supporters say would cut off remote Chinese access — such as through cloud computing services — to advanced U.S. technology to develop artificial intelligence and modernize its military.

Spying at schools

A bill passed along party lines would direct the Justice Department to curb spying by Beijing on U.S. intellectual property and academic institutions and go after people engaged in theft of trade secrets, hacking and economic espionage.

It’s House Republicans’ attempt to revive the China Initiative, a Trump-era program meant to curb China’s spying in U.S. universities and research institutes. It ended in 2022 after multiple unsuccessful prosecutions of researchers and concerns that it had prompted racial and ethnic profiling.

The measure “brings back the shameful China Initiative, which is the new McCarthyism,” said Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif. She criticized the program for assuming that “researchers and scholars in America should be investigated if they had a nexus with China, such as being born there or having relatives from there.”

Rep. Lance Gooden, a Texas Republican and bill sponsor, called racism claims baseless.

Another controversial bill would restrict federal funding to universities with cultural institutes funded by the Chinese government or programs linked to certain Chinese schools.

Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., called Beijing’s influence inside American schools “one of our nation’s most glaring vulnerabilities.” Fellow Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, argued the measure could shut down legitimate academic programs, such as exchange students, study-abroad opportunities, guest lectures and sports events.

Farmland and electric cars

Several Democratic lawmakers also raised bias concerns about a measure that flags as “reportable” land sales involving citizens from China, North Korea, Russia and Iran.

The bill also would add the agriculture secretary to the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment, which reviews the national security implications of foreign transactions.

China “has been quietly purchasing American agricultural land at an alarming rate, and this bill is a crucial step towards reversing that trend,” said Rep. Dan Newhouse, a Republican from Washington state.

The National Agricultural Law Center estimates 24 states ban or limit foreigners without residency and foreign businesses or governments from owning private farmland. The interest emerged after a Chinese billionaire bought more than 130,000 acres near a U.S. Air Force base in Texas and another Chinese company sought to build a corn plant near an Air Force base in North Dakota.

The House also narrowly approved an effort to exclude Chinese electric cars from receiving clean-vehicle tax credits. “America’s working families should not be forced to subsidize a nation whose decades of unfair trade practices and government subsidies have led to lost jobs, shuttered factories and hollowed out communities right here at home,” said Rep. Jason Smith, a Missouri Republican.

Rep. Dan Kildee, a Michigan Democrat, said the bill’s “unclear restrictions” would make it unworkable and “leave the auto industry and batter manufacturers to pull back their U.S. investments.”

Diplomacy

The House backed several measures to boost sanctions on China and deepen ties with Asia-Pacific countries to counter China’s influence.

One could lead Hong Kong’s representative offices in the U.S. to close by stripping them of diplomatic privileges if the territory is deemed to have lost autonomy from mainland China.

To deter Chinese aggression toward the self-governed island of Taiwan, a bill goes after the financial assets of Chinese officials and their immediate families.

Addressing concerns over Beijing’s rising military influence, a resolution cleared the House to recognize the importance of cooperation with South Korea and Japan.