Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) joined U.S. Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) to introduce the Foreign Investment Guardrails to Help Thwart (FIGHT) China Act. This legislation would protect U.S. national security by limiting American investments in certain technologies in China, such as artificial intelligence (AI), advanced semiconductors, quantum systems, and hypersonics.
“As China aids Russia’s war against Ukraine, hacks U.S. infrastructure, and threatens our partners across the Indo-Pacific, we must ensure American dollars do not support the Chinese government’s development of advanced technologies with potential military uses,” said Bennet. “This bill will bolster U.S. national security by creating a framework to screen and block these dangerous investments.”
“The threat China poses to the United States’ national and economic security continues to grow, and we have a generational opportunity to confront it with the FIGHT China Act,” said Cornyn. “By prohibiting and requiring notification of U.S. investments in certain technologies in China, this bill would help ensure American ingenuity, innovation, and investment do not end up in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party to be weaponized against us. The need to address capital flowing from the U.S. to bad actor nations was first realized during the first Trump administration, and I look forward to finishing what we started then by getting this vital priority over the finish line.”
“When it comes to cutting-edge technologies – such as AI and semiconductors – the United States must remain ahead of China,” said Cortez Masto. “I’m proud to stand with my colleagues across the aisle to introduce this bill that is critical for our national security. We can and must make sure no American investments are giving the Chinese Communist Party a leg up in developing these vitally important technologies.”
Last year, Bennet joined former U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and bipartisan colleagues to pass legislation through the National Defense Authorization Act requiring the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. State Department to bolster cooperation with Japan through AUKUS – a security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States – to deter China’s aggressive actions in the Indo-Pacific.
Bennet and U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) lead the Americas Act, the only major strategic economic plan to counter China’s geopolitical and economic influence in the Western Hemisphere. Bennet also introduced the Global Technology Leadership Act with U.S. Senators Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.), which would establish an Office of Global Competition Analysis to assess how the United States fares in key emerging technologies relative to other countries like China to inform U.S. policy and strengthen American competitiveness.
In addition to Bennet, Cornyn, and Cortez Masto, U.S. Senators Jim Banks (R-Ind.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Dave McCormick (R-Pa.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) cosponsored the legislation.
The text of the bill is available HERE.