Senate Republicans Unveil Broad-Based Bill on China

Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and 10 other Republican senators introduced a wide-ranging China bill Sept. 19 that contains several export control, sanction and foreign investment provisions, including “modifying the Missile Technology Control Regime” to increase cooperation under the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) security partnership.

The 378-page Strategic Act also would create a State Department/Treasury Department “tiger team” to start identifying targets for sanctions, export controls and other economic measures “well before China takes military action” against Taiwan, according to a one-page summary of the bill. The legislation also would expand the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. “to cover agricultural investments with national security risks.”

“This legislation takes strong positions to safeguard U.S. and allied interests and provides actionable provisions that will help us in our strategic competition with China," Risch said.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin, D-Md., has been working for months with Republicans to develop a major China bill but has not yet announced a compromise (see 2408200014).