The China fight is on. Last week, the House of Representatives stepped up to the Herculean task of passing 25 bills targeting Chinese intrusions into America’s economy and technology.
This first-ever “China Week” took aim at drones, bad Chinese network routers, batteries and federal biotech contracts with Chinese firms.
“House indulges in Mad Hatter’s Tea Party,” screamed state-run China Daily on Thursday, lamenting “40 years of mutually beneficial relationships. Seriously?
Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., chairman of the House Select Committee on China, put it clearly. “This week, we will draw a line in the sand. With one voice, the U.S. Congress will tell Xi Jinping, this far, and no further,” he said.
If only it were that simple. Our vulnerabilities to China are like heads of the Hydra. Whack one, and more spring up.
In Greek mythology, hero Hercules fights the Hydra, a snake dragon monster with nine heads. It’s no easy task because as soon as Hercules chops off one head, two grow back in its place. Hercules was the nepo baby son of top god Zeus and had a super complicated death and sex backstory, which is how he ended up with the Herculean tasks.
I bring this up because the Hydra reminds me of our national problem with China. For more than two decades the Communist Party of China has penetrated American life. Every time we find a breach by Chinese hacker gang Storm 0558, or go after one alleged spy in the New York state government, something else pops up.
At this point, rooting out the Chinese Communist Party inroads is like fighting an army of Hydras. Beating back this threat will take intense focus and strong tactics, from rip and replace to banning contracts and products.
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Still, the House landed a lot of blows with its legislation last week, many with unanimous votes and most with bipartisan support. Here are five wins:
DJI drones ban. First up was Countering CCP Drones, from Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., banning new drones from Chinese company DJI, which sells more than half of all drones operating in the U.S. DJI is linked directly to the Chinese military. DJI complained about the ban “solely on the basis of the equipment’s country of origin.” Hey, guys, that’s the whole point.
Bad network routers. Sketchy, cheap network routers made by Chinese companies can open the door for hacker attacks. The bipartisan Routers Act will “rip and replace” routers that pose a known threat to the tech stack, such as those made by TP-Link. Unfortunately, bad Chinese routers have already been purchased by NASA, the Pentagon and other government agencies.
Seaport cranes. U.S. Coast Guard cyber experts recently found odd communications devices installed on 170-foot tall Chinese cranes at American seaports. Hence, the Port Crane Security and Inspection Act. “Without a swift sea-change, we will continue to gift the CCP with an easy means of infiltrating our critical infrastructure on their quest for global dominance,” Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., told CNN in April.
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Batteries. The Decoupling from Foreign Adversarial Battery Dependence Act is a mouthful, but don’t forget China already holds about 80% of the world battery market. “We were already late to recognize the PRC’s battery threat, and we cannot afford to do it again,” commented bill sponsor Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla. Chinese battery companies Goshen and CATL are connected to forced, slave labor in China. You can also see Moolenar and Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., in a YouTube video from August explaining why Chinese battery maker Gotion should not build new plants in Michigan and Illinois.
Foreign Adversary Biotech. This is a big one. The Biosecure Act targets five Chinese companies with American contracts and direct Chinese military ties, naming BGI (formerly known as the Beijing Genomics Institute), Complete Genomics, MGI, WuXi AppTec and WuXi Biologics. The Biosecure Act winds down federal contracting. And just in time. Seventy-nine percent of U.S. biotech firms have contracts with China and 80% of active pharmaceuticals used in the U.S. are manufactured overseas, mainly in China. As the New York Times put it in an April 15 expose, WuXi is “heavily embedded in the U.S. medicine chest.”
According to the House Select Committee on China, BGI also had a machine at Los Alamos, the nuclear research lab. This is a problem because, even one bad device on a network can be a gateway for espionage or cyberattacks.
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By the way, Hercules won, but it was a bit gory. Hercules and his nephew Iolaus ultimately defeated the Hydra by burning each neck stump before the heads could grow back.
This set of bills won’t make America safe overnight. On Friday, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., ranking member of the House China Select Committee, told CNBC that “China Week” didn’t go far enough. He wants more bills on fentanyl, critical minerals and outbound investment controls.
All the China Week bills go on to the Senate.
We have to do this. “Buying Chinese technology will only dig ourselves further into dependence on the CCP,” as Moolenaar said.
Ultimately, America must do more than kill the Hydra that is China. American innovation, in AI and more, must prevail. It will take conscious rebuilding of the U.S. supply chain in biotech and other spheres, but these actions are now the price of freedom.
