T he new chairman of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party hopes that the business community will seize a “patriotic opportunity” to partner with his panel as it eyes new legislative victories on tough-minded China legislation by the end of the year.
In a wide-ranging interview with National Review last week, Representative John Moolenaar (R., Mich.), the panel’s new chairman, pulled back the curtain on some of his recent conversations with the business community in this regard.
Moolenaar was tapped by House Speaker Mike Johnson to run the panel after Representative Mike Gallagher (R., Wis.) stepped down from his congressional seat in April. Gallagher was both feared and respected by top executives across the industries that lawmakers were investigating, and he made trips to meet top business leaders in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street.
Among other things, the committee has scrutinized the flow of U.S. capital to Chinese military companies, targeted Chinese AI and biotech firms, and investigated CCP influence in Hollywood and higher education.
Moolenaar indicated that he’s opting for a similar approach and that he took his message about patriotism to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s annual China-focused meeting in a speech last week.
“I made the case that we recognize this relationship with China needs to be reset. We want to do that in a way that there is an orderly transition and engage the business community so that they are partners in the effort, and with the desire of protecting technologies, protecting our national security,” he said.
He also said that he would continue Gallagher’s dialogue with top business leaders. During that Chamber of Commerce meeting, Moolenaar talked about how Sputnik united Americans around an effort to bolster American science and technology. “I think it’s important that our business community has that patriotic opportunity to help us win this competition,” he said.
Moolenaar said that he would continue to press for legislation that the committee — which cannot pass bills itself but is a hub of China-focused legislative activity that notched a major win when Congress passed its proposal to force the sale of TikTok to a U.S. company — has been working on for months.
The panel also initiated the BIOSECURE Act, which would effectively block Chinese-military-linked biotech firms such as BGI Group and WuXi AppTec from operating in the U.S. The legislation was approved by a Senate committee in March, and the House Oversight Committee passed it on Tuesday. It’s been the subject of fierce lobbying by the Chinese companies and other industry players, and some media coverage alleges that banning these companies would make it more difficult to obtain and manufacture key medicines in America.
Moolenaar brushed off that criticism of the bill, saying that the business community is looking for clarity from Congress. “It’s a bipartisan bill,” he said. “It’s got a grandfather clause for a smooth transition because I talked to the business community. The thing they want most is certainty and a pathway that allows them to make rational decisions.” He added that business leaders tell him that they want a smooth transition away from supply-chain entanglements with China and that they don’t want to be beholden to leverage possessed by the CCP.
In his comments to NR, Moolenaar also addressed another top legislative priority: the committee’s effort to pass new restrictions on outbound investment in Chinese tech companies. While China hawks have long favored putting in curbs on private U.S. investment in the Chinese military-industrial base, House Financial Services Committee chairman Patrick McHenry (R., N.C.) has blocked that effort at every turn.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R., La.) has convened committee chairs for talks on passing new restrictions on outbound investment in Chinese tech companies, an initiative that Moolenaar praised: “In my view, we need to start with the common understanding that we don’t want American taxpayer dollars to be used to benefit the People’s Liberation Army or enhance technologies that could be used against the United States.”
That’s not a perspective shared by everyone in the GOP conference, as McHenry argues that more Americans should serve on the boards of Chinese tech firms.
Moolenaar said that there’s an urgency to passing outbound investment legislation because billions of dollars are flowing from U.S. investors to China’s People’s Liberation Army. He added that “people of goodwill” are getting input from a variety of stakeholders and that he believes that it’ll get done. “Now exactly when that will be, in an election year, is difficult to predict, but most good policy takes time, and ideas need time for growing acceptance.”