House Republican Committee's Broad China Bill Calls for More China Sanctions, Entity List Actions
The House’s Republican Study Committee released a counterproposal to the Senate’s Endless Frontier Act that would call for a host of new sanctions against China, continue U.S. export control authorities and make some changes to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. The committee’s Countering Communist China Act, released July 29, calls for broad U.S. sanctions actions, including designations against Chinese technology applications, various senior government officials, foreign people that steal U.S. intellectual property and “foreign persons that knowingly spread malign disinformation … for purposes of political warfare.” The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control would also be authorized to hire 10 new employees to “carry out activities of the Office associated with the People’s Republic of China.”
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Another provision in the bill would bar the Commerce Department from removing Huawei from the Entity List or modifying "any of the licensing policies" related to Huawei, including restrictions under the foreign direct product rule. Commerce would only be allowed to modify Huawei's designations if it received a unanimous vote from the End-User Review Committee and certified to Congress that Huawei is not involved in activities "contrary to United States national security," is not "likely" to engage in those activities in the future, and is not owned, controlled or influenced by the Chinese government. The bill also would require Commerce to place Chinese company Honor Device Co. Ltd. on the Entity List. Commerce would also have to issue a monthly report to Congress on all export license applications the agency receives related to both Huawei and Honor Device Co.
The bill also calls for more agencies to be added as a member to CFIUS, including the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Science Foundation. CFIUS would also be required to include in its annual report on critical technologies whether it has discovered “foreign malign influence or espionage activities” against U.S. universities and recommend further reviews involving U.S. universities.