Lawmakers in the U.S. House and Senate recently reintroduced legislation that would deny visas to foreigners who engage in espionage or steal U.S. intellectual property – particularly those with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), one of the federal senators who introduced the bill, said in a statement Thursday, May 20, “We know that the Chinese Communist Party will spare no effort to steal, and exploit, American companies and universities.”
Beijing has been collecting vast amounts of U.S. health care data for years, using illegal means such as cyber hacking, investing in U.S. biotech companies, and working with hospitals and universities to obtain sensitive information.
In response Rubio said, “If a Chinese citizen has spied on us before, we should absolutely assume that he or she will do so again. And this legislation will prevent repeat offenders from entering our country.”
Rubio noted at the press conference that Chinese Communist spies who are deported from the United States can, under current law, also apply for a U.S. visa again, which is unacceptable.
The legislation, known as the Protecting America from Spies Act, would update the Immigration and Naturalization Act to ensure that anyone who “engages in, has engaged in, or will spying, sabotage, or otherwise violating or evading any U.S. law prohibiting the export of goods, technology, or sensitive information from the United States” would be inadmissible to the United States, and their spouses and children would be ineligible to obtain or renew visas.
The Senate bill was co-sponsored by Rubio and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), while the House version was introduced by U.S. Representative Vicky Hartzler (D-N.Y.).
Hartzler first introduced the bill, H.R. 7326, in June 2020, and Cruz, Rubio and three other Republican senators introduced their bill, S. 4345, a month later.
Cruz said, “The Chinese Communist Party has taken to spying and intellectual property theft, mobilizing an entire nation and relentlessly seeking to infiltrate and steal from the United States and American institutions.”
To illustrate his point, Cruz cited the Chinese Communist regime’s use of its consulate in Houston for “malicious purposes,” rather than diplomatic ones.
On July 22 of last year, when the State Department ordered the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston to “protect U.S. intellectual property and private information of Americans,” Rubio said the Houston consulate was a “large spy center” for the Chinese Communist Party.
The closure order comes a day after two Chinese hackers working for the Communist Party’s Ministry of State Security, the regime’s main intelligence agency, were indicted on charges of cyber espionage that lasted more than a decade. They stole personal information and trade secrets and tried to steal vaccine research for the Chinese Communist Party virus (COVID-19).
In a statement, Hartzler said, “In the face of the Chinese Communist Party’s threat and its prevalence of espionage, the United States needs to take strict and firm action to limit its destructive spying activities – which is why there is an urgent need for the Protecting America from Spies Act) is urgently needed.
Last year, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the bureau was opening a new investigation related to Chinese spying about every 10 hours. He also said the bureau had more than 2,000 counterintelligence investigations related to the Chinese Communist Party at that time.
In addition, to combat the Chinese Communist Party’s aggression against Americans, Rubio and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) have co-sponsored two bills to counter the Chinese Communist regime’s collection of Americans’ genomic data through both legal and illegal means.
They introduced the Genomics Expenditures and National Security Enhancement Act (GENE Act) and the Genomics Data Security Act (GDS Act) on May 20.
Rubio’s office said the bill would direct CFIUS to rewrite its regulations to require the filing of any transaction involving genetic information companies, as well as prohibit any National Institutes of Health funds from being used to support entities with direct ties to the Chinese regime.
The bill would also require each Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act certificate to specify whether the company with access to Americans’ health data has ties to Beijing. a 2019 report found that at least 15 Chinese companies are licensed to perform genetic testing or sequencing on U.S. patients, giving them access to genetic data.
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