Democrat Senators in the United States revealed plans on Wednesday for a new law to manage issues related to China, Taiwan and national security.
Key goals in the bill are: limiting flows of advanced technology and US capital going to China; tightening measures to prevent China from buying US farmland and provisions that would give US officials more authority to review and restrict foreign computer apps (such as TikTok); and, deterring China from any conflict with Taiwan.
Other proposals include domestic economic investments; support for economic allies, in the form of instructure for allies in an alternative to China’s Belt & Road scheme, although such measures might run up against Republican concerns about the increasing level of US debt.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the bill aimed to broaden and replicate the bipartisan support for the sweeping ‘Chips and Science Act‘ last year. But he acknowledged that getting both parties to support the bill could be a “big undertaking”.
Democratic leaders said they would work on the bill, dubbed “China Competition 2.0“, with Republican senators with an aim of introducing it in perhaps the third quarter.
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Republican debt concerns could impede new law
Schumer told a press conference he hoped the bill would be bipartisan, and said Republicans in the Senate had been supportive of some of the ideas proposed for the package.
The measure will need Republican support to become law, as Republicans control the House of Representatives.
The desire for a hard line on China is one of the few truly bipartisan sentiments in the perennially divided US Congress, and last year’s legislation passed with overwhelming support from both Democrats and Republicans.
However, John Thune, the Senate’s No-2 Republican, said the new China initiative would have a hard time getting through Congress, given his party’s concerns about spending and the debt and the size of last year’s bill.
“It would be challenging, and partly because of spending and debt – concerns about too much spending and the impact it’s had on inflation, the way the deficits exploded and ballooned,” Thune said.
A rare major foray into US industrial policy, the Chips and Science bill signed into law by President Joe Biden last year authorized hundreds of billions of dollars to boost scientific research (over a decade) and tens of millions in subsidies for domestic semiconductor manufacturers.
US alternative to Belt & Road
This year’s planned legislation would also seek funding for additional domestic investments in key technology areas and provide a better US alternative to China’s Belt and Road global infrastructure initiative, an effort to counter Beijing’s international influence.
“We know that China uses its economic power like a bully,” Democratic Senator Chris Coons told the news conference.
Schumer said lawmakers would look at TikTok and other foreign-based apps while writing the China bill. TikTok, which is owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, has been a subject of intense scrutiny in Washington and other Western capitals.
TikTok has already been banned from government-issued phones in countries such as Canada and Australia over concerns about whether China can access user data or influence what people see. Some US lawmakers have called for a nationwide ban.
Some of the ideas proposed for the new legislation were part of a broader China bill that was scaled back last year and eventually became the “Chips and Science” act.
- Jim Pollard with Reuters
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