US Lawmakers To Push Communist China on Human Rights With A New Bill
Published:
The bill will be another stage in decoupling of the United States' economy from Beijing.
The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee has scheduled a meeting on Wednesday to consider sweeping legislation to boost economic competitiveness and push Beijing on human rights, part of an ongoing effort in Congress to address competition with Communist China.
Committee aides said on Thursday the panel would mark up – or debate and consider amendments to – the “Ensuring American Global Leadership and Engagement Act,” or Eagle Act, at a meeting on June 30.
The desire for a hard line in dealings with Communist China is one of the few truly bipartisan sentiments in the deeply divided U.S. Congress, which is narrowly controlled by President Joe Biden’s fellow Democrats.
Representative Mr. Gregory Meeks, chairman of the Foreign Affairs panel, introduced the Eagle Act last month.
The Senate on June 8 passed by a strong bipartisan 68-32 majority its own sweeping China bill, the “U.S. Innovation and Competition Act,” or USICA, which authorizes about $190 billion for provisions to strengthen U.S. technology and research, and approved $54 billion to increase U.S. production and research into semiconductors and telecommunications equipment.
On Thursday morning, Mr. Biden National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met with House members – including Meeks and Representative Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the foreign affairs panel – at the White House to discuss the “vital importance” of initiatives to compete with China such as those in USICA.
Mr. Sullivan stressed the importance of linking our foreign policy objectives with making vital investments to grow our economy, the White House said in a statement.