The Biden administration has no plans to alter its policy toward Cuba during its final weeks in office, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a congressional panel last week.
The U.S. and its allies should increase their scrutiny of China's foreign investment in commercial remote sensing firms to ensure the Chinese military does not benefit from such transactions, the congressionally mandated U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said in a new report Dec. 16.
The U.S. government should dramatically increase the number of Cuban officials who are sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., said Dec. 11.
In one of his last moves as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, retiring Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., introduced a wide-ranging China bill Dec. 11 that contains several sanctions, foreign investment and trade provisions.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., both said Dec. 12 that lawmakers continue to seek a compromise on legislation to restrict U.S. outbound investment in China.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who opposed passage of a law banning TikTok in the U.S. unless China’s ByteDance divests the popular social media application, said Dec. 10 he is “still hopeful” the U.S. Supreme Court will rule the measure unconstitutional.
Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., who is slated to become chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in January (see 2412100008), said Dec. 10 that he envisions a greater role for the panel in overseeing State Department operations.
House Republicans have chosen Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., to chair the House Foreign Affairs Committee in the next Congress.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin, D-Md., introduced a wide-ranging Hong Kong bill Dec. 9 that would, among other things, reauthorize the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act for five years.
A sticking point in House-Senate negotiations over legislation to restrict U.S. outbound investment in China has been a Senate proposal to give the Securities and Exchange Commission a role, a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee said Dec. 10.