The House Select Committee on China this week sent letters to four U.S. venture capital firms about their investments in Chinese artificial intelligence and semiconductor companies, saying those investments may be helping Beijing “perpetrate human rights abuses and enhance its military capabilities.” The letters, sent to GGV Capital, GSR Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures and Walden International, also seek information about any of their potential investments in China’s quantum industry, how the companies decide which Chinese firms to invest in, how they respond if a company they invest in is added to the Commerce Department’s Entity List and more.
Exports to China
Republicans on the House Select Committee on China urged U.S. officials this week to cut off a broader range of exports to China, arguing that trade with China is helping to fund Beijing’s efforts to undermine American national security. Committee chair Mike Galagher, R-Wis., specifically asked witnesses from the Commerce, State and Defense Departments to enact a technology export ban on Huawei that the administration has reportedly been considering for the last year (see 2301310009).
A State Department official this week denied allegations that the agency has held back sanctions and export controls in an effort to limit damage to the U.S.-China relationship, saying the Biden administration continues to enforce a range of human rights-related trade restrictions against Beijing. But the official also said the administration hasn’t yet imposed mandatory sanctions under the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 and was accused by at least one lawmaker of failing to comply with a congressional subpoena that sought information on sanctions against China.
The World Trade Organization's published agenda for the Dispute Settlement Body's July 28 meeting includes U.S. status reports on the implementation of DSB recommendations on antidumping measures on certain hot-rolled steel products from Japan; antidumping and countervailing measures on large residential washers from South Korea; certain methodologies and their application to antidumping proceedings involving China; and Section 110(5) of the U.S. Copyright Act. Status reports are also expected from Indonesia on measures related to the import of horticultural products, animals and animal products, and from the EU on measures affecting the approval and marketing of biotech products.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., reintroduced a bill that could impose “secondary sanctions” on companies doing business with entities that have been sanctioned for Uyghur-related human rights abuse in China’s Xinjiang region. The Sanctioning Supporters of Slave Labor Act, which was also introduced last year (see 2208020061), aims to better hold companies “accountable” for doing business with businesses tied to forced labor, Rubio said July 19. He said companies that “continue to do business with these sanctioned entities can still access the U.S. financial system,” adding that “not only should China’s genocidal regime answer for the crimes they are committing but also the companies that profit from these atrocities.”
A bipartisan bill recently introduced in the House would give the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. the power to block all U.S. land purchases by entities from certain “foreign adversary” countries and require mandatory CFIUS filings for those entities buying land near all American military bases. The Protecting U.S. Farmland and Sensitive Sites From Foreign Adversaries Act, introduced last week, also would establish a “presumption of non-resolvability” for those reviews, which would require the committee to assume at the outset that any national security concerns can’t be resolved.
The U.K. blocked or ordered foreign investments to unwind five times from April 2022 to March 2023, the country said in its 2023 report on its National Security and Investment Act. The report, released this month, said the U.K. received 866 investment notifications, clearing about 93% of them within 30 days and intervening in 15 instances for national security reasons. It didn’t issue any penalties.
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The Global Investment in American Jobs Act, a bill that directs the administration to produce a report on the effect of trade barriers to U.S. digital exports and on the extent of foreign direct investment in U.S. companies by state-owned enterprises, passed the House of Representatives by a 386-22 vote July 17. There is no similar bill introduced in the Senate.
The Commerce Department published its spring 2023 regulatory agenda for the Bureau of Industry and Security and the Census Bureau, including new rules that will add more entities to the Entity List and finalize new export filing requirements.