China Panel Seeks New Export, Investment Curbs for Biotech
Congress and the executive branch should use a mix of export controls and foreign investment restrictions to prevent China from using biotechnology to commit human rights abuses, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China said in its 2024 annual report.
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The 315-page report, released Dec. 20, calls on Congress to require the Bureau of Industry and Security to add all Chinese police and public security agencies to its Entity List to bar them from buying U.S. biometric data collection products that could be used for mass surveillance. It recommends that the administration ensure that export controls prohibit U.S. companies from helping Chinese biometric and digital surveillance firms that aid in atrocities in the Xinjiang region.
The commission encourages the administration to restrict U.S. foreign investment in technologies that could be used for mass biometric surveillance or other human rights abuses. It urges Congress to amend the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 to trigger reviews by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. when foreign companies try to buy U.S. assets that control or collect biometric information on Americans.
To promote human rights in Hong Kong, the report calls for extending the ban on sales of certain crowd control equipment and munitions to the Hong Kong police, sanctioning financial institutions that restrict Hong Kongers from accessing their financial assets at the behest of the Hong Kong government, and more robustly using sanctions authorities in the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act and the Hong Kong Autonomy Act.
Among its various other recommendations, the commission suggests that the Commerce Department develop a "comprehensive digital database" to allow businesses and investors to easily ascertain which Chinese entities are sanctioned or listed for human rights abuses or national security concerns. It would ban investment in companies sanctioned by the U.S. or included on key U.S. government blacklists, and it would give the State and Treasury departments "sufficient funding for personnel" to "more effectively gather information and vet sanctions eligibility of suspected perpetrators of atrocities."
The commission would more robustly use sanctions authorities in the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, and it would sanction individuals and entities engaged in forced organ harvesting or illegal organ trafficking in Xinjiang. It would direct the Treasury to report on the impact of sanctions enforcement on the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.
The commission is chaired by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and co-chaired by Sen. Jeffrey Merkley, D-Ore.