US announces defense bill to counter China's influence
The US Senate Armed Services Committee has released draft legislation targeting China on multiple fronts.
On May 23, the US Senate Armed Services Committee released draft legislation targeting China on multiple fronts, from blocking China's efforts to erode US military advantages to countering Beijing's growing influence around the world.
The bill, which proposes a $750 billion budget, would also authorize the US military to buy more Lockheed Martin F-35 jets and fully fund a program to modernize the US nuclear arsenal.
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The Senate Armed Services Committee acknowledges that the US military's prestige has been eroded and weakened by new threats from strategic rivals such as China and Russia.
The bill calls for the creation of a list of Chinese organizations and companies with any ties to the country's military, which would be used to screen visa applications for Chinese students and researchers.
A senior aide to the Senate Armed Services Committee told reporters that many universities had no information about whether their research was under threat. Many U.S. universities conduct research with military applications, and U.S. officials are very concerned about intellectual property theft from China.
The annual bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), must go through several steps to become law. Next month, the House Armed Services Committee, which is controlled by Democrats, will introduce its own version of the bill. The two committees must then come up with a single, compromise version before it can pass.
It is still too early to say exactly which provisions of the bill proposed by the Senate Armed Services Committee will survive, but committee aides said they expect most of the key provisions to be approved./.