The US House of Representatives intensified its legislative push against Beijing on Monday, advancing a slate of China-related bills targeting industrial espionage, export controls, national security threats and alleged human rights abuses.
At the same time, lawmakers moved to deepen US ties with Taiwan and protect Falun Gong practitioners.
In a show of bipartisan consensus on China-related legislation, all bills were passed by voice vote. The bills had stalled in the Senate during the last Congress and must now win passage there, before they can head to the White House for enactment into law.
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The renewed momentum comes as US-China tensions rise over tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump and the two nations’ accelerating competition for technological dominance.
The Economic Espionage Prevention Act, reintroduced in February by Representative Rich McCormick, a Georgia Republican, authorises the president to impose visa and property sanctions on foreign entities involved in thefts of trade secrets, aiding adversarial militaries or violating US export laws.
While broadly framed, the bill is aimed at Chinese firms and entities transferring sensitive technologies to countries like Russia.
Lawmakers from both parties supported the bill, with Republicans blaming China for working against Trump’s peace efforts in Ukraine.
“The CCP is relentlessly undermining President Trump’s efforts to bring an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” said Representative Brian Mast, Republican of Florida.
Representative John Olszewski, Democrat of Maryland, also accused China of playing a “crucial role in supporting Russia” by providing dual-use goods like semiconductors.
“We absolutely should be bolstering sanctions, not just on Russia’s warmongering, but also on its enablers,” he said.
The House also passed the Maintaining American Superiority by Improving Export Control Transparency Act, reintroduced in March by Representative Ronny Jackson, Republican of Texas.
It requires the Commerce Department to report regularly to Congress on export controls, focusing on high-risk technologies and their links to foreign adversaries.
While backing the bill, Democrats noted some of the recent federal budget cuts Trump has made as well as the outdated technology the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security uses to manage export controls.
“This administration claims that it will prioritise export controls, yet it has frozen 10 per cent of the BIS budget. That is not keeping American safe,” Olszewski said, criticising the bureau’s “outdated and inefficient IT system”.
The House also advanced a bill aimed at strengthening US engagement with Taiwan and another that supports the self-governing island’s presence in international forums and organisations.
A bill to amend the Taiwan Assurance Act of 2020 requires the State Department to review US-Taiwan relations and update its report at least once every five years.
Mast said the amendment “updates and strengthens the original law, ensuring that US policy toward Taiwan reflects today’s strategic reality, not yesterday’s hesitations”.
The Taiwan International Solidarity Act also mandates an annual report on China’s efforts to isolate Taiwan diplomatically and instructs US officials to urge international resistance to such moves.
Representative Young Kim, a Democrat from California, said that the bill helps the US “demonstrate through meaningful action our support for Taiwan’s status in international organizations.”
“I’m glad the House could show our bipartisan support for Taiwan today. Taiwan’s participation in global conversation is the world’s gain,” added Kim, who also serves as chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs East Asia and Pacific Subcommittee, in a statement.
To address alleged human rights abuses in northwest China, the House passed the No Dollars to Uygur Forced Labour Act, which would prevent federal funds from supporting goods produced with forced labour in Xinjiang.
Originally passed last year, the bill lapsed with the end of the previous session. It would bar US agencies from financing programmes linked to forced labour and mandates annual compliance reporting.
The House also passed the Falun Gong Protection Act, which would require the president to impose sanctions on Chinese officials allegedly involved in forced organ harvesting and other abuses targeting practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual group Beijing has branded a cult.
It also mandates annual reports from the departments of State and Health and Human Services on China’s organ transplant practices.
Representative Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican who sponsored the bill, called it “the first binding commitment” by Congress to take “decisive legal action” against the alleged persecution and forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners.
Earlier in the day, the House Rules Committee advanced the DHS Security Restrictions on Confucius Institutes and Chinese Entities of Concern Act to the floor. A floor vote of the full House is scheduled on Tuesday.
The bill would block any Department of Homeland Security funding to colleges that host Confucius Institutes or are tied financially to Chinese institutions linked to the Communist Party.
Confucius Institutes once offered Chinese language and culture programmes on US campuses. After Congress restricted federal funding in 2018, nearly all were closed, according to a 2023 US Government Accountability Office report.
More from South China Morning Post:
- ‘Xenophobic’ US visa ban bill puts Chinese students in the geopolitical crosshairs – again
- US lawmakers bring back bill to revoke China’s trade status
- Biden signs Pentagon budget bill that extends sanctions on Hong Kong officials
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