A pair of US senators on Thursday introduced bipartisan legislation that would require US President Donald Trump to more systematically punish China for stealing US technology.
The bill requires the president to give Congress periodic updates on foreign companies and individuals that steal vital US trade secrets and mandates the leveling of penalties, including economic sanctions.
US senators Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat, and Ben Sasse, a Republican, introduced the legislation.
Van Hollen said the bill was a “direct approach” to combating China’s use of illicit methods for acquiring rapid technological advances.
“I think there is a big deterrent benefit to making it clear upfront that when we find this kind of theft, there will be penalties,” Van Hollen said.
The Chinese government has repeatedly insisted that Washington has exaggerated the problem of intellectual property theft for political reasons, dismissing the industrial espionage allegations as groundless.
Van Hollen and Sasse’s bill would require the president to send a report to congressional committees every six months.
The biannual report to Congress must list individuals or companies involved in serial theft of US trade secrets that threatens US national security or economic health.
The legislation also requires the president to impose penalties on those companies, including “blocking sanctions” that generally freeze US assets and bar doing business with a US business or person.
The US has long asserted that China fails to protect US intellectual property and steals it or forces the transfer of it.
Trump has retaliated against Chinese intellectual property and trade practices by hiking tariffs and imposing limits on companies like Huawei Technologies Co (華為).
A US Senate report released in November showed that federal agencies responded too slowly as Beijing recruited US-based researchers to transfer intellectual property from US laboratories, leaving US taxpayers unwittingly funding China’s economic rise.
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