Congress takes up series of bills targeting China, from drones to drugs

How to curb and counter China's influence and power through its biotech companies, drones, and electric vehicles will dominate the US House's first week back from summer break, with lawmakers taking up a series of measures targeting Beijing. Washington views Beijing as its biggest geopolitical rival, and the legislation is touted as ensuring the US prevails in the competition. Many of the bills scheduled for a vote this week appear to have both Republican and Democratic support, reflecting a strong consensus that congressional actions are needed to counter China.

The legislation "will take meaningful steps to counter the military, economic and ideological threat of the Chinese Communist Party,” said Rep. John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and a Michigan Republican. “There's a bipartisan goal to win this competition.” Advocacy groups worry about the impact, warning against rhetoric that hurts Asian Americans and could create "an atmosphere of guilt by association or fuel divisiveness,” said Christine Chen, executive director of Asian & Pacific Islander American Vote. The Chinese Embassy in Washington called the legislation “new McCarthyism” that hypes the tensions in an election year. If passed, the bills "will cause serious interference to China-US relations and mutually beneficial cooperation, and will inevitably damage the US's interests, image, and credibility,” spokesman Liu Pengyu said in a statement.

Among the bills are efforts to reduce US reliance on Chinese biotech companies, ban Chinese EVs and drones, restrict Chinese nationals from buying farmland, toughen export restrictions and revive a programme to root out spying on US intellectual property. Here's a look at the key legislation:Targeting Beijing- linked biotech A bill seeks to ban a group of five biotechnology companies with Chinese ties from working with anyone who receives federal money. The companies include those that work to help doctors detect genetic causes for cancer or do research and manufacturing for American drugmakers, considered a key step in developing new medications.

America's biotech companies have said the bill would disrupt their partnerships with Banning Chinese drones Another bill would dub drones made by the Chinese company DJI, which dominates the global drone market, “an unacceptable risk to US national security” and cut its products from US communications networks over data security concerns. The bill would protect Americans' data and critical infrastructure, said Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, who introduced it. “Congress must use every tool at our disposal to stop” China's “monopolistic control over the drone market,” she said.