Firms included on trade violation or sanctions lists would be prohibited from receiving U.S. tax dollars through direct government contracts or with third parties, under legislation proposed in Congress by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
“The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) predatory trade policies, significant human rights abuses, and threats to American security are absolutely unacceptable.
“In upstate New York, we have seen their disastrous effects firsthand. Enough is enough. It is time to step up and make commonsense reforms to ensure Americans are not funding these entities.”
“The Chinese Communist Party actively exploits our free enterprise system and the extraordinary loopholes within our government. It is dumb and dangerous to allow that to continue,” Rubio told The Epoch Times in a separate statement.
“We know who the bad actors are in China because many of them are on U.S. government blacklists. At a minimum, we should make sure Chinese businesses on those lists don’t have access to federal funds.
“The Chinese Communist Party is actively seeking to weaken and destabilize America. We should not be funding its companies with U.S. taxpayer dollars.”
In their joint statement, Tenney and Rubio singled out two Chinese firms— drone maker DJI and defense conglomerate AVIC—that are presently recipients of U.S. tax dollars, but would be barred under the “Turn Off Federal Funding of Threatening Entities That Thwart American Prosperity Act,” or the “Turn Off the Tap Act.”
While particularly concerned with Chinese firms, the Tenney/Rubio legislation would apply to any company featured on a number of watchlists. They include the Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nations list and the Non-Specially Chinese Military Industrial Complex, the Pentagon’s Chinese Military Companies list, and the Commerce Department’s Entity List of sanctioned nations, firms, and individuals.
Any subsidiaries of such firms also would be covered.
Under existing U.S. law, there is currently no central ban on federal funds going to foreign firms included on U.S. government blacklists, according to the statement.
“The Turn Off the Tap Act addresses this national security vulnerability by prohibiting federal funds from going to firms listed on several federal blacklists.
“As the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues its offensive against American national, economic, and industrial security—while also committing gross human rights abuses—American taxpayers should not be forced to line its pockets,” the statement said.
“If the Biden administration is under the belief that Hong Kong, under the jurisdiction of the CCP’s puppet John Lee, retains its previous autonomy, they are badly mistaken.
“Even more astonishingly, despite acknowledging the many state-sponsored forced labor programs operating in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Biden administration has chosen not to list the Chinese Communist Party as a state sponsor of human trafficking,” he continued.
“This is an unacceptable and cowardly oversight for a nation that has already recognized the CCP as guilty of genocide.
“Human trafficking is an urgent global crisis, and it deserves a serious and meaningful response. We cannot give evil dictators and human smugglers a free pass.”
