This week, the Senate passed two major bills targeting U.S. technology and security ties with China by limiting the flow of cutting-edge research and federal funding to companies linked to Beijing.
The new legislation is part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), an annual defense policy bill that includes $879 billion in funding for the US military. With bipartisan passage in the Senate Thursday night, Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn's Counter China Act 2025 and Tennessee Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty's Biosecurity Act are poised to clamp down on perceived security vulnerabilities between the U.S. and China.
Senator Cornyn “Fences to foreign investment will help thwart the (FIGHT) China 2025 Act.” sets new barriers to prevent American money and expertise from advancing China's high-tech military programs, including advanced chips, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, hypersonic weapons and supercomputers. The bill was passed on a bipartisan basis.
“This is a transparency bill that will give us some insight into the amount of money being invested in the People's Republic of China and the extent to which those investment dollars are directly flowing into the arsenal of our greatest strategic adversary, the People's Republic of China,” Cornyn said in the Senate on Thursday. “The United States is the most important foreign source of investment in semiconductors, quantum computing and artificial intelligence in China due to China's military fusion strategy. These investments directly support the People's Liberation Army.” (RELATED: Here's what's in the massive defense bill the Senate just passed during the shutdown)
U.S. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) speaks to the media at the Capitol on December 1, 2017 in Washington, DC. Senate Republicans say they have enough votes to pass the tax reform bill. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The bill would give federal agencies the power to block or punish transactions that funnel U.S. capital or expertise into key industries in China. It also mandates regular reporting to Congress on U.S. investments in Beijing's technology industries.
“We should be developing the most sensitive, cutting-edge technologies right here at home, rather than funding their development in countries that do not share our values,” added Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. “[The bill] will protect our national security and help ensure that American ingenuity, innovation and investment do not lead to the acceleration of these countries' progress in areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing and microelectronics.”
In addition to Cornyn's efforts, Senator Hagerty Biosecurity Law prohibits federal contracts that use equipment or services from “biotech companies of concern,” targeting “CCP-controlled biotech firms,” as the senator called them Thursday, because they are “tools of the CCP collecting and analyzing DNA for millions of people around the world.” The bill was passed on a bipartisan basis.
“The Biosecurity Act prevents American taxpayer money from flowing to troublesome biotech companies,” Hagerty told the Senate chamber on Thursday. “This will ensure that the federal government cannot purchase, contract with, or subsidize CCP-controlled biotech firms that put the DNA of American citizens and the security of the United States at risk.” (RELATED: Another Chinese National Detained for Allegedly Smuggling Biomaterials into a University of Michigan Lab)
Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) speaks about border security and Title 42 during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on May 11, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Under Hagerty's amendment, the federal government would be prohibited from contracting, funding, or providing grants to companies associated with the Chinese military that process genetic or biological data, such as genomics and DNA sequencing.
“Communist China has openly identified biotechnology as a key area of future warfare,” Hagerty said. “To give just one frightening example, in 2017, the People's Liberation Army National Defense University wrote about the possibility of, quote, 'ethnic-specific genetic attacks that could, quote, be a precise, targeted attack' – get this – 'that destroys a race, a specific group of people, or a specific individual.'
“It’s chilling,” Hagerty said.
Senate approved NDAA on Thursday, ending weeks of impasse over the massive $879 billion package and marking a rare step in approving major legislation during the government shutdown. With the bill passed, the House and Senate Armed Services committees can now begin reconciling differences between each chamber's respective versions.
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