Chinese officials and state media have criticized the United States House of Representatives for pushing at least 25 hawkish China-related bills in a “China week” ahead of the US presidential election in November.
Among the bills, the BioSecure Act was passed by the US House of Representatives by 306 to 81 votes on Monday to make American drug companies stop doing business with five Chinese biotechnology companies until 2032.
The five companies include BGI Group (and its subsidiary BGI Genomics), MGI Tech, Complete Genomics, WuXi AppTec and Wuxi Biologics. They were accused of collaborating with the People’s Liberation Army but they denied the allegations.
The BioSecure Act needs approval from the Senate and the signature of US President Joe Biden to become law.
Shares of some US-listed Indian Pharmaceutical companies such as Laurus Labs, Syngene and Piramal Pharma gained 3-4% on Monday.
“The US needs to abandon ideological bias, respect the principles of market economy and trade rules, stop advancing that bill, and stop suppressing Chinese companies under various pretexts,” Mao Ning, a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said in a media briefing on Tuesday.
“The US needs to provide a fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment for companies of all countries,” she said.
She added that China will continue working to protect the lawful and legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies and support them in safeguarding their own rights and interests in accordance with the law.
The House of Representatives also on Monday passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, which will grant the US government the power to disclose Chinese officials’ illicit financial assets in the event that Beijing invades Taiwan.
‘Anti-China week’
The US House of Representatives started having meetings again on Monday after summer break. In the “China week,” lawmakers were scheduled to discuss a series of China-related bills this week.
Apart from the BioSecure Act and the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, other proposed legislation includes:
- Hong Kong Economic Trade Office (HKETO) Certification Act (to shut down the three HKETOs in the US within 180 days)
- Countering CCP Drones Act (to end DJI’s drone monopoly in the US and build the US drone industrial base)
- Protect America’s Innovation and Economic Security from Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Act of 2024 (to counter the CCP and the Chinese government’s espionage efforts targeting US intellectual property and academic institutions)
- The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Restrictions on Confucius Institutes and Chinese Entities of Concern Act (to restrict the government funding to an institution of higher education that has a relation with a Confucius Institute)
- Protecting American Agriculture from Foreign Adversaries Act (to block purchases of farmland by foreign adversaries that pose national security risks)
- End Chinese Dominance of Electric Vehicles in America Act of 2024 (to prohibit Chinese firms from accessing the United States’ EV tax credit)
If passed, these bills “will cause serious interference to China-US relations and mutually beneficial cooperation, and will inevitably damage the United States’ own interests, image and credibility,” Liu Pengyu, a spokesman of the Chinese Embassy in Washington said in a statement.
Liu described the legislation as “new McCarthyism” that hypes the tensions before the US presidential election takes place in November.
US President Joe Biden has emphasized stability in Sino-US relations throughout his term but his administration is getting more and more pressure from Republicans, who are promoting hawkish China policies, Li Donghai, director of the Center for American Studies of the China Foreign Affairs University, said Tuesday.
Li said the so-called “China week” promoted by Republican lawmakers, or actually an “anti-China week,” is aimed at changing the overall direction of Washington’s policy from maintaining dialogues and cooperations with Beijing into creating confrontations and conflicts with it.
According to Tian Feilong, an associate professor at the School of Law, Beihang University and a director of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, “It’s not surprising that the US tries to suppress China with Hong Kong and Taiwan issues, which are Washington’s major geopolitical tools in the New Cold War against China.”
Tian said Tuesday that the US wants to treat Taiwan as an eastern version of Ukraine and tries to infiltrate and control the island’s military security, diplomacy, economy and culture from all directions.
He said Beijing should be prepared to launch countermeasures as the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act will provide “legal grounds” and action guidelines for the US to deeply interfere in Taiwan matters.
“If the HKETO Certificate Act becomes law, it will have a negative impact on Hong Kong’s international status and trade and economic rights,” he said. “The Hong Kong government should prepare some countermeasures while the central government should also take actions to protect Hong Kong’s legitimate rights.”
‘Legal risks’ in Hong Kong
The Hong Kong government has set up 14 Hong Kong Economic Trade Offices around the world, including three in the US in Washington, New York and San Francisco.
US lawmakers proposed the HKETO Certificate Act in early 2023 to call for shutting down the three HKETOs in the US.
The progress of the legislation has accelerated after the United Kingdom Police Force said in May this year that three men, including one executive of the HKETO in London, had been charged with national security violations for spying on exiled Hong Kong activists.
Besides, the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) on August 23 added 42 more Chinese and Hong Kong companies to its Entity List and accused them of supporting the Russian defense industrial base.
On September 6, the US departments of State, Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security and Treasury jointly released an updated version of the Hong Kong Business Advisory, warning US companies about risks to their operations and activities in Hong Kong.
The advisory said companies operating in Hong Kong are now facing potential legal, regulatory, operational, financial and reputational risks due to the passage of the National Security Law in 2020 and the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance (or Article 23 of the Basic Law) in 2024.
It also reminded companies operating in Hong Kong to comply with US sanctions. It said failure to adhere to US sanctions can result in civil and criminal penalties under US law.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said it firmly opposes and strongly condemns the United States’ Hong Kong business advisory. It said Hong Kong enjoys better rule of law and has a more favorable business environment after passing two national security laws.
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The Republican members of the House are incredibly ignorant of the world outside the US. The have become Sino Phobic in the extreme. Nothing good will come of this.