CCP Committee Proposes Research Security and Tech Development Initiatives

The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party adopted a bipartisan report last week that proposes the U.S. “reset” its economic relationship with China in part through new research security measures and controls on technology exports. The recommended actions include:

• Prohibiting U.S. entities from conducting research with Chinese entities that are “involved with military and defense R&D,” such as those on the list of China’s Defense Science and Technology Key Labs developed by the U.S. Air Force
• Requiring research institutions to “obtain an export control license if they intend to use any export-controlled item that has a clear and distinct national security nexus, during the course of research collaboration on critical and emerging technologies with any foreign adversary entity”
• Empowering the president to ban entities owned or controlled by foreign adversaries from selling certain technology products in the U.S. market, including quantum computing, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, and surveillance products
• Adding to the disclosure requirements of National Security Presidential Memorandum 33 by requiring federal research funding applicants to disclose past “relations and interest” with foreign government or entities in foreign adversary countries that occurred within the past five years
• Establishing a National Technology Competitiveness Analysis Center at the Department of Energy that would inform decisions on export controls
• Expanding visa screening procedures, including by requiring the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to participate in vetting “high-risk researchers”

The committee also calls for measures to expand U.S. capacity for technological development, such as:

• Establishing a work authorization program for foreign nationals from allied countries who have expertise in key technologies and who would work on projects funded by national security agencies
• Funding the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and DOE Office of Science in a manner that prioritizes technologies relevant to national security and supply chain security
• Creating a mechanism for the Department of Defense to “fund early-stage, capital-intensive emerging technologies with national security applications, with requirements for production in the U.S. or in closely allied nations”
• Establishing a “critical technology industry fund … for building or expanding R&D and advanced production facilities” in the U.S.
• Strengthening the R&D tax credit
• Ensuring the U.S. is “the first country to develop a quantum computer capable of breaking modern-day encryption tools”

The committee does not have the authority to advance legislation of its own, so all of its recommendations will have to be pursued through other committees.