The Biden administration and lawmakers are drawing up plans to screen and potentially restrict U.S. investment flowing to China’s tech sector, but the effort is already sparking debate about how far-reaching it should be.
Despite the widespread concern about sharing technology with China, the administration still has to decide whether screening and restrictions should cover only investment in semiconductors, quantum computing and artificial intelligence or include sectors such as pharmaceuticals, critical minerals and others.
“Outbound investment into certain industries or sectors may end up being used against us, especially in those areas where there’s military-civilian fusion of technology,” said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., the top Democrat on the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the U.S. and the Chinese Communist Party. “But, again, I think that we need to take a scalpel to this as opposed to a sledgehammer.”
The committee’s work is intended to uncover economic and other ties that enable Beijing to gain an advantage over Washington, Krishnamoorthi said in an interview.
“And no way should we empower the CCP to be able to use technology or money or investments against us,” Krishnamoorthi said. “Certainly, in a security or military sense, and potentially economically, but at the same time we have to be careful about harming our own interests.”
