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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A group of 10 Republican US senators on Tuesday urged Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to head her department to work faster to identify new American technologies that the Chinese government could abuse if exported to that country.
FILE PHOTO: US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo speaks during a high-speed Internet event at the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House in Washington, USA, June 3, 2021. REUTERS / Evelyn Hockstein
The letter led by Senator Tom Cotton and seen by Reuters urged the department to identify emerging and fundamental technologies as required by a 2018 law.
We remain concerned that US companies export sensitive technologies to seemingly civilian Chinese companies or accept investment from them only for these Chinese companies to promptly deliver this technology to Chinese military or intelligence services, the letter also signed by Marco Rubio, John Cornyn, Ben said. Sasse, Rick Scott and Todd Young.
The letter from the senators stated that trade has produced only a limited set of controlled emerging technologies … As long as these lists remain incomplete and underutilized, the federal government will not have a properly functioning export control system and foreign investment screening process. .
The letter added that it leaves the United States unacceptably vulnerable to China’s economic predation.
A U.S. Congressional advisory report this month said trade hasn’t done its part to protect national security and keep sensitive technology out of the hands of the Chinese military.
The report from the US-China Economy and Security Review Commission said trade has been slow to create a list of sensitive technologies that should be scrutinized prior to export to China.
The Commerce Department said Tuesday in response as innovation is not static and technology that triggers homeland security problems can evolve over time, the goal of identifying these technologies will be an ongoing effort and will not be a finite or complete goal.
Commerce noted that it has enacted four rules on controls on emerging technologies, and more are pending. He noted that it expanded the military end-user rule and added companies to its list of entities that restrict US suppliers from selling to companies like Huawei Technologies and Hangzhou Hikvision.
In November 2018, Commerce published 45 examples of emerging technologies, including face and speech recognition, but no list has ever been finalized. It has not yet proposed a list of so-called core technologies as required that year when Congress tightened export policies and the process for foreign investment screening.
At the time, Chinese entities were trying to get sensitive US technology and use civilian innovation for the military. The law required Commerce to partner with other agencies to identify emerging or cutting-edge technologies and so-called core technologies essential to making vital items like semiconductors.
Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Michael Perry
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