U.S. policymakers should explore new ways to restrict transfers of items and services that China may be using to advance its artificial intelligence capabilities, such as data, algorithms and human capital, the Center for a New American Security said in a report this week. Although the administration should “aggressively” restrict exports to China of advanced semiconductor equipment, the report said Washington also needs to “seek out creative tools to regulate other basic building blocks of AI.”
The House Select Committee on China's chairman and ranking member acknowledged that momentum for legislation on TikTok has dissipated, but Chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., said that behind the scenes he and others are working on "compromise language that will avoid some of the pitfalls of the Senate's approach, which a lot of people on my side felt was too broad ... which still does what we want it to do, which is ban [TikTok] or force a sale."
A former senior export control official with the Commerce Department told the House Select Committee on China that he thinks the Entity List is ineffective against China, because countries can change their names, establish partnerships, change locations, and because the Entity List is a "meat cleaver" approach, given that listed parties are subject to very strict licensing requirements.
The Global Investment in American Jobs Act, a bill that directs the administration to produce a report on the effect of trade barriers to U.S. digital exports and on the extent of foreign direct investment in U.S. companies by state-owned enterprises, passed the House of Representatives by a 386-22 vote July 17. There is no similar bill introduced in the Senate.
A bipartisan bill recently introduced in the House would give the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. the power to block all U.S. land purchases by entities from certain “foreign adversary” countries and require mandatory CFIUS filings for those entities buying land near all American military bases. The Protecting U.S. Farmland and Sensitive Sites From Foreign Adversaries Act, introduced last week, also would establish a “presumption of non-resolvability” for those reviews, which would require the committee to assume at the outset that any national security concerns can’t be resolved.
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Akin added three partners from Hughes Hubbard to its Washington, D.C., office, the firm announced. Ryan Fayhee, a former national security official at DOJ, will advise clients on sanctions and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. reviews, incident response and compliance best practices. Roy Liu will focus on U.S.-China trade matters, sanctions, export controls, customs cases and CFIUS proceedings, and Tyler Grove will focus on sanctions and trade regulations.
The U.S. may need to address export control loopholes to better prevent China and others from acquiring sensitive technologies, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said, but he also cautioned the U.S. against imposing controls that are too broad and said they need to be coordinated with allies.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. is expected to increase the number of penalties it issues for violations of mitigation agreements, StoneTurn consultant Scott Boylan said. Orion Berg, a lawyer with White & Case, said there will be a similar uptick in activity from European countries, adding that he expects all EU member states to have an active foreign direct investment screening regime within two years.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. recently approved a merger between U.S.-based real estate business INDUS Realty Trust and global investment firms Centerbridge Partners and GIC Real Estate, INDUS said in a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The companies said they received CFIUS approval June 22, and “all required regulatory approvals to complete the Merger have now been received.”