Senate Intel Leaders Seek to Enhance Administration’s Tools to Stop Flow of US Tech to China’s Military

Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) (L) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), both members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, participate in a discussion at the Atlantic Council in Washington on July 16, 2018. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Two senators are pressing the Biden administration to expand the authorities of the Treasury and Commerce Departments in order to prevent China’s communist regime from benefiting from U.S. innovation and investments.

On Feb. 21, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Vice Chair Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) penned an open letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to request that she expand the use of existing tools and authorities to prevent China’s military-industrial complex from benefiting from U.S. technology, talent, and investments.

“We remain deeply concerned that U.S. technology and investment continue to flow into the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC’s) companies to effectively enhance the capabilities of the PRC’s military and to perpetuate its ongoing genocide in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,” the letter said.

In the letter—and another like it addressed to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo—Warner and Rubio pressed the administration to act in order to prevent American dollars from contributing to China’s military modernization and human rights abuses.

“The Department of the Treasury has a number of authorities at its disposal to protect U.S. interests and counter this increasing threat,” the duo said.

“To ensure that American businesses, investors, and consumers are not aiding the PRC’s military; its ongoing genocide in Xinjiang; its abuses in Tibet, Hong Kong; and its global repression campaign, your department must use all appropriate tools to address these urgent threats.”

The senators expressed concern with the flow of U.S. innovation, talent, and capital into China, arguing that the regime’s authoritarian desire to exert control over global supply chains and achieve technological superiority was a threat to U.S. interests.

“It is widely known that the PRC’s Military-Civil Fusion (MCF) program targets technological advancements in the United States, as well as university and research partnerships with the United States, for the PRC’s military development,” the lawmakers said.

“U.S. technology, talent, and capital continue to contribute—through both lawful and unlawful means, including theft—to the PRC’s development of critical military-use industries, technologies, and related supply chains.

The senators also posed a number of questions for Yellen as to why a number of entities and individuals who have been identified by the U.S. Government as posing national security risks or human rights concerns have not been included on the Treasury’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) lists.

Likewise, the senators requested answers from Raimondo as to America’s continued reliance on China for critical high-technology sectors and the department’s ability and authority to evaluate such reliance, “To ensure that American businesses, investors, and consumers, are not knowingly or unknowingly aiding the PRC’s autocratic regime, nor advancing its expansionist and aggressive geopolitical ambitions and genocide in Xinjiang.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to the Treasury and Commerce Departments for comment.