A group of senior Republican lawmakers has introduced the Stop PRC Economic Espionage Act, aiming to facilitate the prosecution of economic espionage cases involving Chinese companies in the US. The bill, led by Senator John Cornyn, Senator Tom Cotton, and Representative John Moolenaar, seeks to treat all businesses based in China as instruments of the Chinese state under federal law.
Senator Cornyn emphasized that in China, there are no truly private companies as they are fundamentally tied to the Chinese Communist Party. The proposed legislation intends to address the state control over Chinese companies and the challenges in proving their ties to the Chinese government in economic espionage cases.
The bill aims to update existing economic espionage laws to better reflect the reality of Chinese state influence over businesses. It would remove the requirement to demonstrate direct control by the Chinese government for prosecuting economic espionage cases involving Chinese companies.
The legislation also includes provisions to classify organizations based in Russia, Iran, and North Korea as foreign instrumentalities for economic espionage prosecutions. This move comes amidst heightened US scrutiny of technology transfers, trade secret theft, and foreign influence operations, particularly those linked to China.
