Congress takes up a series of bills targeting China, from drones to drugs

Didi Tang, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — How to curb and counter China’s influence and power — through its biotech companies, drones and electric vehicles — will dominate the U.S. House’s first week back from summer break, with lawmakers taking up a series of measures targeting Beijing.

Washington views Beijing as its biggest geopolitical rival, and the legislation is touted as ensuring the U.S. prevails in the competition. Many of the bills scheduled for a vote this week appear to have both Republican and Democratic support, reflecting strong consensus that congressional actions are needed to counter China.

The legislation “will take meaningful steps to counter the military, economic and ideological threat of the Chinese Communist Party,” said Rep. John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and a Michigan Republican. “There’s a bipartisan goal to win this competition.”

Advocacy groups worry about the impact, warning against rhetoric that hurts Asian Americans and could create “an atmosphere of guilt by association or fuel divisiveness,” said Christine Chen, executive director of Asian & Pacific Islander American Vote.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington called the legislation “new McCarthyism” that hypes the tensions in an election year. If passed, the bills “will cause serious interference to China-U.S. relations and mutually beneficial cooperation, and will inevitably damage the U.S.’s own interests, image and credibility,” spokesman Liu Pengyu said in a statement.

Among the bills are efforts to reduce U.S. reliance on Chinese biotech companies, ban Chinese EVs and drones, restrict Chinese nationals from buying farmland, toughen export restrictions and revive a program to root out spying on U.S. intellectual property.

If approved, the measures would still need to clear the Senate. Here’s a look at the key legislation:

Targeting Beijing-linked biotech

A bill seeks to ban a group of five biotechnology companies with Chinese ties from working with anyone that receives federal money.

The companies include those that work to help doctors detect genetic causes for cancer or do research and manufacturing for American drugmakers, considered a key step in developing new medications.

America’s biotech companies have said the bill would disrupt their partnerships with Chinese contractors, resulting in delays in clinical trials for new drugs and higher costs.

Supporters say the legislation is necessary to protect U.S. health care data and reduce the country’s reliance on China for its medical supply chain.

“American patients cannot be in a position where we rely on China for genomic testing or basic medical supplies,” said Rep. Brad Wenstrup, an Ohio Republican who sponsored the bill. He called it “the first step” in protecting Americans’ genetic data.

BGI, one of the Chinese companies named in the bill, called it “a false flag targeting companies under the premise of national security.” The company, which offers genetic sequencing for research purposes in the U.S., said it follows the law and has no access to Americans’ personal data.

Banning Chinese drones

Another bill would dub drones made by the Chinese company DJI, which dominates the global drone market, “an unacceptable risk to U.S. national security” and cut its products from U.S. communications networks over data security concerns.

The bill would protect Americans’ data and critical infrastructure, said Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, who introduced it. “Congress must use every tool at our disposal to stop” China’s “monopolistic control over the drone market,” she said.

DJI argues that users have to “opt in” to share data such as flight logs, photos and videos with the company. If users don’t do so, the company said it won’t have data to share with any government when compelled. It also has rejected allegations that it is a Chinese military company and has aided the persecution of members of ethnic Muslim minorities.

Adam Bry, co-founder and CEO of major U.S. drone maker Skydio, told a congressional committee in June about losing business to China, where “the Chinese government has tried to control the drone industry, pouring resources into national champions and taking aim at competitors in the U.S. and the West, tilting the playing field in China’s favor.”

Protecting intellectual property

A challenge is likely against an attempt to revive a Trump-era program described as a way to stop Chinese efforts to steal intellectual property and spy on industry and research.

The bill 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.

The Trump-era program, called the China Initiative, ended in 2022 after multiple unsuccessful prosecutions of researchers and concerns that it had prompted racial and ethnic profiling. Critics also say it chilled cooperation between the U.S. and China in science and technology meant to benefit the greater good.

“Our colleagues in the Republican Party sought to reinstate this failed program because they wanted to look like they were solving problems. But in reality, they were only stoking fear and hatred,” several Democratic lawmakers said in a statement in March, when they fought off another effort to restart the program.

Restricting farm sales

Another bill, which says it will protect U.S. farmland from foreign adversaries, has raised concerns about discrimination.

It would add the agriculture secretary to the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment, which reviews the national security implications of foreign transactions. The bill also flags as “reportable” land sales involving citizens from China, North Korea, Russia and Iran.

“Food security is national security, and for too long, the federal government has allowed the Chinese Communist Party to put our security at risk by turning a blind eye to their steadily increasing purchases of American farmland,” said Rep. Dan Newhouse, a Republican from Washington state, who introduced the bill.

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.

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