Tariffs, Anti-CCP Bills Signal Increased Pushback Against CCP Aggression

A truck passes by China dhipping containers at the Port of Los Angeles, in Long Beach, Calif. on Sept. 1, 2019. Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images

The United States is poised to impose tighter restrictions on China’s export of goods in key technologies and to counter the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) military ambitions and increasing aggression toward its neighbors.

Additional U.S. tariffs are anticipated, and presidential candidates Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are expected to outline proposed measures against China during the upcoming presidential debate on Sept. 10.

Dozens of Bills in Congress

Congress kicks off its fall session this week with a long list of bills aimed at curbing the CCP’s influence in several industries while protecting domestic interests.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has published more than 30 bills, including several aimed at protecting U.S. farmland, trade secrets, critical infrastructure, and advanced technology from the Chinese communist regime’s predatory trade practices.

Other bills address the CCP’s international actions, such as its aggression toward Taiwan and its support for Russia in its war with Ukraine.

A few additional bills seek to block organizations such as colleges and nonprofits from accepting funding from China, in an effort to prevent the CCP from buying political influence.

Republicans hope to expedite the majority of these bills. The fast-tracking procedure, which requires the votes of two-thirds of the representatives on the House floor, would limit debate on each to 40 minutes.

Some of the issues have bipartisan support.

Closing a Forced-Labor Loophole

To close a loophole that has allowed products made with forced labor to enter the U.S. market,  the House is looking at two versions of bills aimed at changing “de minimus” regulations.

Chinese retailers such as Shein and Temu currently ship large volumes of goods to the United States directly to consumers. These packages are valued under $800 and thus are not subject to a law that went into effect in 2022 that prohibits goods made with forced labor.

The CCP is known to subject Falun Gong practitioners and Uyghurs to arbitrary detention, forced labor, and torture. The Xinjiang region, where Uyghurs are persecuted, accounts for nearly all of China’s cotton production, which is largely performed with forced labor.

Closing the loophole would require additional funding for Customs and Border Protection to increase the review of imported packages, on which some lawmakers have recommended imposing a small customs user fee. Lawmakers predict that these measures will curb low-value Chinese imports and benefit domestic manufacturing.

Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Sens. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Bob Casey (D-Pa.) recently introduced the Fighting Illicit Goods bill. This bill also targets illicit fentanyl that originates in China.

Huawei Versus Apple

Chinese tech giant Huawei said that it has received more than 3 million preorders for its new triple-folding smartphone, just hours ahead of Apple’s iPhone 16 launch on Sept. 9.

Huawei, founded by a former People’s Liberation Army officer in 1987, surpassed Apple in 2018 and then Samsung in 2020 to become the dominant smartphone manufacturer worldwide.

The company has close ties to the CCP, and its equipment has been used in the CCP’s mass surveillance and persecution of groups in Xinjiang. Huawei has been sanctioned by the United States multiple times for human rights abuses, and in 2022, the Federal Communications Commission banned the import and sale of Huawei products, citing national security concerns. Other countries have taken similar actions.

Apple, meanwhile, is losing significant market share in China. Huawei’s announcement is symbolic of the tech wars between the CCP and the United States, which has led other countries including the Netherlands to cut off China’s access to advanced chip technology.

Last year, Huawei leaked news of an advanced chip breakthrough as U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo wrapped up her visit to China, raising questions about whether and how it evaded U.S. sanctions.

Tariffs on the Calendar

Both Trump and Harris have expressed support for tariffs on Chinese products, especially in industries leveraged by the CCP in an effort to weaken their U.S. competitors.

While in office, Trump imposed tariffs on more than $300 billion in Chinese imports, and the Biden–Harris administration has kept all of them in place, with plans to increase some.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is expected to increase tariffs on several Chinese products this month, including an increase from 25 percent to 100 percent on Chinese electric vehicles, from 25 percent to 50 percent on solar cells, and to 25 percent on steel and aluminum products, facemasks, and some battery components.

In campaign speeches, Trump has said he will raise China tariffs to 60 percent. Harris’s campaign recently unveiled her platform on a new webpage, in which she states her goal concerning China is to “make sure that America, not China, wins the competition for the 21st century and that we strengthen, not abdicate, our global leadership,” and references “China’s unfair economic practices” damaging U.S. industries and businesses. She has not announced specific tariff plans.

Both parties tend to take a tough stance on China. Tuesday’s presidential debate will provide an opportunity for the candidates to present their plans for dealing with the CCP while standing side by side.

Terri Wu, Lily Zhou, and Reuters contributed to this report.