Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Ranking Member Pat Toomey (R-PA) are espousing the benefits of the Meeting the China Challenge Act of 2021, specifically an agreement established regarding the measure.
Brown and Toomey collaborated on the amendment, noting it addresses critical concerns about China within the national security and financial services realm. It encourages intensified use of existing sanctions against Chinese violators on Hong Kong, human rights, cyber espionage, illicit trade with North Korea, and fentanyl production and distribution.
“Our recent China policy has been haphazard, ad hoc, and ineffective,” Brown said. “China must not be allowed to undermine American national interests or those of our allies. This amendment will better enable President Biden to hold China accountable by imposing real economic costs and responding directly to aggressive Chinese behavior with a broad range of political, diplomatic, and economic – including sanctions – tools.”
The Meeting the China Challenge Act of 2021 includes, among other features, provisions urging intensified use of existing sanctions authorities concerning the People’s Republic of China; new mandatory sanctions to combat cyber-attacks on United States Government or private sector networks; new mandatory sanctions to combat theft of trade secrets and intellectual property of United States persons and firms; and a review of export controls on items with critical capabilities that enable human rights abuses.
“Congress should defend our national security and our economy from the growing threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),” Toomey said. “This bill imposes mandatory sanctions on Chinese entities that steal American intellectual property and engage in cyberattacks against the U.S. It also strengthens export controls on items used by the CCP to commit genocide against Uyghurs and suppress freedoms in Hong Kong.”