Huawei's release of a phone called the Mate 60 Pro has the industrial security community atwitter, if we can still use that word.   The device boasts a processor fabricated at seven nanometers, a threshold of precision the allied export controls of chipmaking equipment were meant to thwart.   

Representatives Gregory Meeks, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Andy Barr (R-KY), Vice Chair of the House India Caucus,introduced legislation to loosen export restrictions of high-performance computing equipment to India.

The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party will hold a hearing on September 12th at 8:30 a.m., at Peterson Hall at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, NY. The committee is also expected to host a tabletop war game for Wall Street executives to illustrate a PRC invation of Taiwan.   

The recently unveiled United States Strategy on Countering Corruption delineates an ambitious approach to address corruption through a series of well-defined measures. This initiative, detailed under five distinct pillars, seeks to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of existing government frameworks, both within and outside U.S borders. To curb corruption and its deleterious effects, the U.S. Government will organize its efforts around five mutually reinforcing pillars of work: 1.  Modernizing, coordinating, and resourcing U.S. Government efforts to fight corruption;  2. Curbing illicit finance; 3. Holding corrupt actors accountable; 4. Preserving and strengthening the multilateral anti-corruption architecture; and, 5. Improving diplomatic engagement and leveraging foreign assistance resources to advance policy goals.

  Based on a BIS review of the existing Section 232 exclusion process for areas of improvement and public comments on the current process for submissions to BIS, BIS is publishing this proposed rule to propose revisions to the Section 232 exclusions process, including to the Section 232 Exclusions Portal. The proposed rule to amend the Section 232 exclusions process comprises four salient modifications designed to refine efficiency, fairness, and transparency.

While staffers from the other China Committee recover from their CoDel to New Guniea, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission will hold a hearing Monday, August 21, on "China's Current Economy: Implications for Investors and Supply Chains" starting at 9:30 a.m. ET. Agenda indicates the first two hours will address China's Economy, with the trade discussion beginning at 11:20 AM.  Livestream on the commission's web page.

Despite its emphasis on control of emerging technologies and climate resilience, the Administration's National Intelligence Strategy makes no mention of the role of the Commerce Department in its formulation or execution. Director of National Intelligence Avril D. Haines last week released the 2023 National Intelligence Strategy (NIS), which provides strategic direction for the Intelligence Community (IC) over the next four years, calling for redoubled efforts in economic statecraft, industrial actions and climate analysis. “The NIS is a foundational document for the IC and reflects the input of leaders from each of the 18 intelligence elements, as it directs the operations, investments, and priorities of the collective,” said Ms. Haines.    No Commerce Department elements are included in the definition of “Intelligence Community,” according to the report.

The government’s Trade Advisory Committees are unfairly skewed toward big business, giving short shrift to labor and environmental concerns, according to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash). “Allowing corporate interests to continue to dominate the trade advisory committee system clearly harms workers, consumers, and small businesses, the lawmakers wrote in a letter to US Trade Representative Katherine Tai, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.

A bad penny always turns up.  Odebrecht S.A, the perennial source of corruption settlements under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) delivered again, snaring a banking subsidiary of Grupo Aval, the holding company of the second richest man in Colombia. Corporación Financiera Colombiana S.A. (Corficolombiana), a Colombian financial services institution, has agreed to pay over $80 million to resolve parallel bribery investigations by criminal, civil, and administrative authorities in the United States and Colombia stemming from the company’s involvement in a scheme to pay millions of dollars in bribes to high-ranking government officials in Colombia. 

Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party continued his quest with a letter calling for the Federal Communications Commisssion to answer questions about the role of the Chinese in the market for "Cellular IoT Modules," the radio devices which connect industrial equipment and home appliances to each other and central stations through the internet. Later in the week, Mr. Gallagher led a fact-finding mission to Australia to deliver a speech on "United States and Australia's rich history united by freedom, security imperatives, economic interests, and common values," according to a statement.

In remarks last week in Lexington, Kentucky,  Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson spoke to common concerns about the implementation of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) which requires certain U.S. and foreign companies to report to FinCEN information about their beneficial owners: "FinCEN is working around the clock to stand up this program in a way that allows you to understand your obligations, provides you the resources to meet them, and ensures the smallest possible burden on you.

 While Congress takes a Summer recess, Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and his Congressional Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party continue to badger communists and their supporters at every turn, from coastal investment elites to row crop farmers in Iowa. Thursday, Mr. Gallagher, Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), and Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA), hosted a roundtable event in Dysart, Iowa to highlight the Chinese Communist Party's agricultural technology theft.   

The State Department has published an interim measure to streamline defense trade of U.S. origin items while the administration pursues legislative changes. The AUKUS pact, a defense agreement among Australia, the United States, and Britain, was signed in 2021 and involves $368 billion worth of investments.

By an overwhelming vote of 91 to 6 the Senate approved an amendment to the defense reauthorization bill that for the first time would impose notification requirements on US cutting edge technology outbound investments to China and other “countries of concern.” The notification requirement would apply to artificial intelligence, quantum industries, advanced semiconductors and micro-electronics, hypersonics, satellite-based communications and networked laser scanning systems with dual-use applications.

China is providing crucial support for Russia’s war effort in Ukraine by helping the Kremlin evade Western sanctions and is likely supplying Moscow with key technology, according to a new US intelligence report. China has dramatically expanded its purchase of Russian oil, gas and other energy exports since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February last year and used its financial system to allow Russia “to conduct transactions unfettered of Western interdiction,” said the assessment released Thursday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).

The Commerce and Defense Departments announced yesterday that they have signed a Memorandum of Agreement to expand collaboration to strengthen the US semiconductor defense industrial base. The agreement will increase information sharing between the departments to facilitate close coordination on the CHIPS for America’s incentives program, ensuring that their respective investments position the United States to produce semiconductor chips essential to national security and defense programs.

The Administration is not operating on a timetable for releasing highly-anticipated new export control rules on cutting-edge technology, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Wednesday. The focus instead is on getting the final rules right, so that US national security is protected but companies are not prevented from selling readily-available technology, she said at a program sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute.

Brian Nelson, the Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, is set to make an official visit to Nairobi, Kenya, and Mogadishu, Somalia from July 24 to 29. The journey …

A bipartisian group of lawmakers Tuesday introduced the Inter-American Development Bank Transparency Act. which would require the Treasury Department to inform Congress of PRC influence at the …

As lawmakers raise questions of whether restrictions should be imposed on US investment in China, the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party is launching an investigation into US venture capital firms’ investment in Chinese cutting edge technologies. Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc) and ranking Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi (Ill) sent letters to four US venture capital firms – GGV Capital, GSR Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures and Walden International – demanding information about the firms' investments in Chinese artificial intelligence, semiconductor and quantum companies.