Bipartisan US bill seeks to toughen Donald Trump’s approach to China
- The bill is a sign of growing unease with Trump’s attitude toward China and worries that national security concerns will be given short shrift
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Martin Matishak on politico.com on January 4, 2019.
A bipartisan pair of Senate lawmakers proposed legislation on Friday to compel the Trump administration to take a stronger stance against digital and technological threats from countries such as China.
The bill from Virginia Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who also serves on the panel, is the latest sign of growing, bipartisan unease with US President Donald Trump’s attitude toward China and worries that national security concerns will be given short shrift as the White House pursues a trade deal with Beijing.
Those fears grew last month when Trump suggested that he might use the case of Meng Wanzhou, the CFO of Chinese tech giant Huawei who was arrested in Vancouver for violating US sanctions on Iran, as a bargaining chip in negotiations.
“It is clear that China is determined to use every tool in its arsenal to surpass the United States technologically and dominate us economically,” Warner, a former tech executive, said in a statement.