GOP Pushes Stricter China Export Control, Cites Lax Enforcement

Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, is now the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. His goal is to tighten export controls for sensitive technologies that could be used by the Chinese military.

In a Jan. 13, 2013 letterPDF) to the U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, McCaul further requested licensing data that the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry Security (BIS) had granted to China.

The letter stated that the BIS had not provided requested documents to the committee as a response to a similar plea from two years earlier.

The lawmaker observed that the agency had only “produced one small tranche of documents to date in May 2021—more than six months after the initial request—and provided nothing further since then.”

Before the latest request, the lawmaker Another similar one It was in November 2022. The move came after the Biden administration issued sweeping new export controls on Oct. 7, 2022, in an effort to hamstring the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military modernization.

One of those rules is to block China from advanced semiconductor chips manufactured with U.S. technology, regardless of whether they were made in China.

In the “a href=”https://executivegov.com/2022/11/rep-michael-mccaul-requires-information-on-bis-semiconductor-export-rule/”>statement Follow the November requestMcCaul repeated that assertion. “the licensing data will enable Congress to assess how the BIS is implementing the controls and determine the effectiveness of the rule enforcement in preventing China from misappropriating U.S. critical technology.”

“By receiving this information, we can assess whether the spirit of these rules is being implemented effectively or undermined by an overly lax licensing process,” McCaul stated.

Concerning Figures

After adding Chinese companies like SMIC, a semiconductor producer, and telecom giant Huawei to its export control lists, the BIS will have to accept or reject license requests from American tech firms in order to sell their equipment into China.

McCaul claimed that the committee needed information about the number licenses that were invalidated.

“How many licenses were declined, and where did they go?” McCaul asked McCaul while Speaking with Defense News In a hallway interview last week on Capitol Hill.

He pointed to a six-month summary of BIS’ China export controls provided by the agency back in 2021, deemed “concerning” By Republicans

“It showed that less than 1 percent [of licenses] were declined and $60 billion went into Huawei and $40 billion went to SMIC,” McCaul stated.

China Academy of Engineering Physics, a state-run institution, focuses on nuclear weapons research and development. It has now been able to access U.S.-made semiconductors, despite the fact that similar technology procurements have been prohibited for more than 20 years. The Wall Street Journal published a recent report.

CAEP claims to have purchased sophisticated American chips at least twelve times in the last two-and-a half years.

“Our government doesn’t have time to complain that these problems are tough. We need solutions,” McCaul stated in the statement that he was referring to the revelation.

Reforms

The committee is currently reviewing another batch of data regarding export control approvals that arrived at Congress last week. According to the GOP lawmaker, the subsequent finding would prompt potential legislative reforms to the BIS’ export control list.

“We do want a reporting requirement because they never report to the public on export licenses,” McCaul. “We want a full accounting of that.”

He stated that in the January letter “BIS’s dereliction in providing basic transparency and accountability” This would set the stage for his 90-day review.

“A principal objective for this review is to determine if the Department of Commerce should continue to lead implementation of the export control system,” He said.

The extent of any legislation that arises from McCaul’s three-month review period could be influenced by the bureau’s ability or unwillingness to provide a complete accounting.

With export control regimes currently splitting between the State Department’s munitions list and the Commerce Department’s dual-use items list, there has been discussion about whether “there should be one single licensing agency,” According to a Republican staffer of the committee.

“Part of what we’re looking to do is figure out if the existing system is the best arrangement or if it should wholesale be put somewhere else or if different aspects of the export control system should have different agencies as the lead,” Defense News was informed by the staffer.

“Whatever rule we come up with, the [People’s Republic of China] is going to try to find ways around it,” The staffer was also added. “It’s one of those things where it’s somewhat neverending.”

Naveen Anthrappully contributed to the report.