WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. House of Representatives this week approved a sweeping package of bills aimed at countering China’s influence, bolstering a largely bipartisan effort to ensure America emerges victorious in a battle between the world’s superpowers.
The efforts would ban Chinese drones, restrict access to U.S. markets for biotech companies linked to China, tighten sanctions and deepen ties with Asian countries. The campaign to target Beijing this week shows how curbing China’s power has become a rare topic of political consensus.
But some measures were cut along party lines, with Republicans arguing that national security must be protected 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 against “overbroad anti-China rhetoric.”
One controversial measure seeks to revive a Trump-era program to stamp out Beijing’s spying on U.S. universities and institutions. The bills must all be approved by the Senate.
“The House sent a strong, bipartisan message to the Chinese Communist Party: the United States will not stand idly by,” said Republican Rep. John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
The Chinese embassy in Washington said the measures would harm bilateral relations and U.S. interests. “China deeply regrets and opposes this and has lodged serious representations with the U.S. side,” spokesman Liu Pengyu said.
Below is an overview of the key topics that legislation focused on this week:
Technology
Technology dominated the measures, reflecting a “laser-focused” approach to limiting the spread of Chinese technology in the US and preventing Beijing from gaining access to American innovations, said Craig Singleton, senior China fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank.
The House of Representatives has backed a bill to block government money from flowing to five biotech companies with ties to China, which are considered necessary to protect Americans’ health data and reduce dependence on China for U.S. medical supplies.
Another bill passed by the House of Representatives would ban devices made by Chinese drone manufacturer DJI, a dominant player in the global market, on national security grounds.
“By allowing artificially cheap DJI drones to monopolize our skies, U.S. drone production has been decimated and our greatest strategic adversary has eyes in our skies,” said Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y.
To close a loophole in the export controls law, the House backed an amendment that proponents say would block Chinese remote access — such as through cloud computing services — to advanced U.S. technology for developing artificial intelligence and modernizing the military.
Spying in schools
A bill passed along party lines would direct the Justice Department to crack down on Beijing’s spying on U.S. intellectual property and academic institutions and prosecute people who commit trade secret theft, hacking and economic espionage.
It’s an effort by House Republicans to revive the China Initiative, a Trump-era program meant to curb Chinese spying on American universities and research institutes that ended in 2022 after multiple failed prosecutions of researchers and concerns that it had led to 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 have a connection to China, such as being born there or having family members there.”
Congressman Lance Gooden, a Republican from Texas and the bill’s sponsor, called the accusations of racism baseless.
Another controversial bill would limit federal funding to universities with cultural institutes funded by the Chinese government or to programs affiliated with certain Chinese schools.
Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., called Beijing’s influence in American schools “one of our country’s most glaring vulnerabilities.” Fellow Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, a Democrat, argued that the measure could shut down legitimate academic programs such as exchange students, study abroad opportunities, guest lectures and sporting events.
Agricultural land and electric cars
Several Democratic lawmakers also raised concerns about bias in a measure that would make land sales involving citizens of China, North Korea, Russia and Iran “reportable.”
The bill would also add the Agriculture secretary to the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment, which reviews the national security implications of foreign transactions.
China “is quietly buying up American farmland at an alarming rate, and this bill is a critical step to reversing that trend,” said Rep. Dan Newhouse, a Republican from Washington state.
The National Agricultural Law Center estimates that 24 states prohibit or restrict undocumented foreigners and foreign companies or governments from owning private farmland. The interest was sparked after a Chinese billionaire bought more than 130,000 acres near a U.S. air base in Texas and another Chinese company wanted to build a corn mill near an air base in North Dakota.
The House also narrowly approved an effort to exclude Chinese electric cars from clean vehicle tax breaks. “American working families should not be forced to subsidize a country whose decades of unfair trade practices and government subsidies have led to job losses, shuttered factories, and hollowed-out communities right here at home,” said Rep. Jason Smith, a Republican from Missouri.
Rep. Dan Kildee, a Michigan Democrat, said the bill’s “unclear restrictions” would make it unenforceable and “lead the auto industry and battery makers to pull their U.S. investments.”
Diplomacy
The House supported several measures to strengthen sanctions against China and strengthen ties with countries in the Asia-Pacific region to counter China’s influence.
This could lead to Hong Kong’s missions in the US being closed down by stripping them of their diplomatic privileges if the territory is deemed to have lost its autonomy from mainland China.
In a bid to deter Chinese aggression against the autonomous island of Taiwan, a bill has been introduced to confiscate the financial assets of Chinese officials and their immediate family members.
To address concerns about Beijing’s growing military influence, the House passed a resolution recognizing the importance of cooperation with South Korea and Japan.