House lawmakers have introduced a bipartisan bill to restrict investments in certain Chinese companies.
The Foreign Investment Guardrails to Help Thwart China Act, or FIGHT China Act, would permit the Treasury Department to block U.S. investments in certain technologies in China, including artificial intelligence models, quantum computers, materials used in hypersonic systems and other military technologies.
The bill was introduced Friday by Reps. Andy Barr, R-Ky.; Jared Golden, D-Maine; Michael McCaul, R-Texas; John Moolenaar, R-Mich., chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party,; and Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y.
It’s a companion bill to legislation with the same named introduced March 13 in the Senate and is in conjunction with an executive order that President Trump signed last month covering the same ground.
Text for the House bill was not immediately available, but the Senate version would apply restrictions to several investment types — such as acquisitions, including equity interest, property or other assets; loans and debt financing; joint ventures; and equity interest or debt conversions. There would be certain exemptions, including investments in securities, derivatives of securities; or made as a limited partner in a venture capital fund, private equity fund, fund of funds or other pooled investment fund, the bill noted.
“As the ongoing threats from the Chinese Communist Party continue, Congress is taking a significant step to safeguard American economic interests and protect national security,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in a statement. “President Trump has made clear the past few decades of investments propping up Chinese aggression must come to an end.”