Renamed the ‘CCP Initiative,’ the program focuses on countering espionage by the Chinese Communist Party in both commercial and academic spheres.
WASHINGTON—The House has passed a bill to re-establish the China Initiative at the Department of Justice with an updated name, replacing “China” with “CCP”—China’s ruling Chinese Communist Party.
Within the DOJ’s national security division, the revived program aims to curb the CCP’s commercial and academic espionage on critical technologies by prosecuting CCP agents who have been active on U.S. soil.
In a heated debate on the House floor on Tuesday, Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Congressional Asian and Pacific American Caucus, said the bill could unfairly target Chinese Americans through racial profiling.
For reasons similar to Chu’s, the White House has also strongly opposed the bill.
Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas), who introduced the bill to revive the DOJ’s China program, said his legislation aims to protect Chinese Americans, who are “our people being persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party.”
The government of “China is the real threat here,” he said on the House floor. He said it was China’s main talking point to “play the race card” to stop people from standing up against its poor treatment of the Chinese people and other global citizens.
The bill eventually passed on Wednesday by a vote of 237 to 180, surviving a motion to send it back to the committee of jurisdiction.
In an emailed statement, Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas) told The Epoch Times his bill is a “critical step in curbing intellectual property theft.”
“The Chinese Communist Party continues to ramp up efforts to steal and copy U.S. technological advances. My bill will give federal law enforcement the tools they need to effectively combat the CCP and safeguard American industry,” he added.
The bill’s Senate version, introduced by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) last year, is currently with the Judiciary Committee.
Protecting US Sovereignty During Future Pandemics
The House also passed a bill requiring a Senate vote before the United States adopts any measures under a proposed pandemic treaty that critics say would give the World Health Organization (WHO) too much influence over U.S. domestic affairs.
The White House “strongly opposed” the No WHO Pandemic Preparedness Treaty Without Senate Approval Act, saying that the legislation would “improperly purport to constrain” the U.S. president’s authority to “prevent, prepare for, and respond to pandemics.”
The bill was passed on Wednesday with a vote of 219 to 199.
In an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) said he was surprised that the Biden-Harris administration was open to signing the WHO’s pandemic treaty.
“We cannot stand by as they attempt to surrender control of our public health system to unelected bureaucrats at the WHO and the UN,” he said. “This legislation is essential to protecting our nation’s sovereignty and ensuring that the safety of American citizens remains in the hands of the U.S., not a corrupt international organization.”
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) introduced the bill’s Senate version last year, which is currently with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Protecting US Farmland
Another bill, introduced by Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), that was passed by the House aims to protect U.S. farmland. It requires the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), an inter-agency panel that reviews the national security risks of foreign transactions, to review any foreign farmland purchases.
The legislation also expands the panel to include the Secretary of Agriculture to review any farmland and agricultural biotech-related transactions under the CFIUS jurisdiction.
The White House opposes the bill, calling the bill “unnecessary” and “inconsistent” with current CFIUS processes.
It was passed with a vote of 269 to 149.
Newhouse previously told The Epoch Times, “Food security is national security, and for too long, the federal government has allowed the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to put our security at risk by turning a blind eye to their steadily increasing purchases of American farmland.”
The third day of “China Week,” a week in which the House Republican leadership pushes a package of China-related legislation, showed congressional consensus that China’s ruling CCP is a threat but also shed light on the differences in the two political parties’ approaches.