Senators Call for China Hard Line

The heads of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence are calling on the Administration to expand the use of existing tools and authorities to prevent China’s military industrial complex from benefitting from US technology, talent and investment.

Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va) and Vice Chairman Marco Rubio (R-Fla) say they are concerned about the flow of US innovation, talent and capital into China.

In separate letters to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, the senator emphasized the need to utilize the authorities at the government’s disposal to protect
US interests and ensure that American businesses, investors and consumers are not inadvertently advancing China’s authoritarian interests or supporting its ongoing genocide in Xinjiang and human rights abuses in Tibet and Hong Kong.

The senators wrote to Secretary Yellen that “It is widely known that the PRC’s Military-Civil Fusion (MCF) program targets technological advancements in the U.S., as well as university and research partnerships with the U.S., for the PRC’s military development. U.S. technology, talent, and capital continue to contribute – through both lawful and unlawful means, including theft – to the PRC’s development of critical military-use industries, technologies, and related supply chains. The breadth of the MCF program’s ambitions and reach creates dangerous vulnerabilities for US national and economic security as well as undermines respect for democratic values globally.”

Treasury, Commerce Letters
In their letter to the Treasury Secretary, the senators posed a number of questions regarding

Treasury’s internal Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons lists, which do not include a number of entities and individuals who have been identified by the US government as posing national security risks or human rights concerns.

The senators’ letter to Secretary Raimondo focused on her department’s authority over export controls. “Despite recent restrictions on the export of sensitive technologies critical to U.S. national security, we remain deeply concerned that American technology, investment, and talent continue to support the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC’s) military industrial complex, intelligence and security apparatus, its ongoing genocide, and other PRC efforts to displace United States economic leadership. As such, we urge the Department of Commerce to immediately use its authorities to more broadly restrict these activities.”

They also requested answers from Secretary Raimondo on US critical high-technology sectors, the department’s ability and authority to evaluate companies’ reliance on China and assess the flow of US innovation to Chinese entities.