House Republicans Agree on China Wish List

House Republicans introduced a sweeping bill of anti-China actions including academic, investment, procurement and trade restrictions,  as well as tax breaks and  increased spending on economic statecraft and IP protecction.

A grab bag of longstanding China Hawk demands, the 72 page bill contains the collective wish list  from a session of inaction by house leadership on substantive China legislation.  

HR 7476, the Countering Communist China Act, is "the largest and most comprehensive legislation addressing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ever introduced in Congress," according to its authors, Republican Study Committee Chairman Kevin Hern (OK), RSC National Security Task Force Chairman Joe Wilson (SC), and 43 co-sponsors.

Leading the legislation are calls for investment restrictions, inbound and outgoing in semiconductors, satellites, Artificial Intelligence, Quantum information xciences / high performance computing, hypersonics and biotechnology.

While there are carveouts,  new reporting requirements are proposed for retirement plan fiduciaries investing in sanctions or "foreign adversary entity."

Withdrawal of China's permanent normal trade relations is envisaged, and Free Trade is to be established with the UK, Taiwan, New Zealand and the five notionally democratic ASEAN states.

The bill text for HR 7476 is here.

The following is an outline of the legislation, preserving all but the most shrill Study Group language.

TRADE, INVESTMENT, AND ECONOMIC RELATIONS

• Restrict outbound investments into Chinese tech companies.
• Place trade restrictions on Chinese military and surveillance companies.
• End Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China
• Free trade with Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, New Zealand, and the UK.

COUNTERING CHINA’S MALIGN INFLUENCE

• Sanction Chinese apps that steal U.S. citizens’ data and protect personal health data from China.
• Stop U.S. government officials from lobbying for Communist countries, including China.
• Reporting requirements for entities that receive more than $50k from a foreign government or political party.
• Stop CCP entities from purchasing American real estate and farmland.

MEDICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY SUPPLY CHAINS

• Incentivize medical supplies and drugs to be made in America.
• Empower the U.S. Trade Representative to pursue agreements to diversify and strengthen our supply chain.
• Streamline the approval process for coal projects and rare earth elements, critical minerals, and carbon.

INVESTMENT, RESEARCH, AND DEVELOPMENT

• Allow R&D to be fully expensed, as instituted by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
• Cut red tape and burdensome regulations to encourage innovation.
• Encourage companies to invest in their workers’ training.

EDUCATION

• No federal funding to universities who receive any funding from the CCP.
• Bar students from countries of concern from participating in sensitive projects that impact our national security.
• Bar federal STEM grants from going to Chinese nationals.
• Require student visa applicants to disclose if they receive funding from the CCP.

DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND TAIWAN

• Stop federal agencies and departments from recognizing Chinese claims to sovereignty over Taiwan.
• Cut ties with any program forcing involuntary sterilization or abortion.
• Form new Mandarin Chinese language social media accounts, radio stations, videos, etc.
• Hold China accountable for their human rights abuses against Uyghurs.

DEFENSE

• Stop American companies from investing in Chinese military entities.
• Require the President to impose sanctions on Chinese Communist Military Companies.
• Prevent any Department of Defense funds from going to any Chinese Communist Military Companies.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

• mandatory sanctions on entities knowingly engaging in a pattern of theft of American IP.
• Prohibit the USTR from supporting, allowing, or facilitating TRIPS waivers at the World Trade Organization
• Prohibit security clearance holders that have left the federal government from contracting or receiving funding from CCP-owned companies.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

• Oppose an increase in weight of Chinese currency in the IMF.
• Stop shareholding increases for China in the IMF.
• Establish a strategy to ensure the U.S. dollar remains the primary global currency.

FENTANYL

• Impose sanctions on Chinese officials and entities until fentanyl overdoses/deaths have dropped by 98%.
• Empower U.S. nationals to sue Chinese government officials for the death of an immediate family member caused by fentanyl.
• Financially reward people who provide information about the illicit development of fentanyl and its precursors.

NATIONAL SECURITY AUTHORIZATIONS

• Increase funding for Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control to enforce sanctions on China
• Increase funding for Customs and Border Control to enforce forced labor provisions on items coming from China
• Increase funding for Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute IP theft

ENERGY

• Categorize uranium as a critical mineral, thus barring foreign entities from mining it on federal lands. [Only US citizens or US companies can hold locatable and leasable minerals on federal lands, but foreign companies may form US subsidiaries to secure such rights. (Ed)]
• Ban Chinese EV Batteries from being used on American military bases, and phase out Chinese EV batteries currently being used.
• Bar federal funds from being used to get [sic] Chinese EVs, or EV components.