WASHINGTON — The ?? ??? ??House of Representatives voted on Sept. 11 to pass H.R. 1398, the Protect America’s Innovation and Economic Security from CCP Act of 2024, a bill to reinstate the Trump-era China Initiative program, and H.R. 9465, the Protecting American Agriculture from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024, a bill to require the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to review agricultural land purchases solely by immigrants from China, North Korea, Russia, or Iran.
Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) Chair Rep. Judy Chu (D-Pasadena) issued the following statement:
“With precious little time remaining to fund our government, House Republicans could have worked on a bipartisan basis this week to do so — supporting our veterans and protecting our homeland. Instead, they launched a partisan ‘China Week’ that does nothing to improve our competitive advantages to the Chinese Communist Party or seriously address national security interests.
“I am outraged by today’s passage of deceptively-named bills that would undermine our nation’s security and racially profile immigrants and Americans of Chinese and Asian descent.
“The devastating H.R. 1398 would revive the Trump-era China Initiative, a program that purported to prosecute and curb cases of economic espionage but instead targeted innocent Asian American scientists for investigation and arrest because of their Chinese descent.
“This McCarthy-esque witch hunt, carried out by our own government, irreversibly ruined so many lives and careers while casting a chilling effect on our academic community that continues to damage our country’s global competitive edge and ability to stay on the cutting edge of scientific advancements.
“Ripped out of Trump’s Project 2025, this bill is an egregious outcome of xenophobic and fear-mongering rhetoric from Republicans who so prioritize the appearance of being ‘tough on China’ that they fail — or willfully ignore — to see or care about the havoc the China Initiative has wreaked on Asian American communities.
“So let me be clear: while we all want to stop American secrets from being stolen, investigations should be based on evidence of criminal activity, not race, ethnicity, or national origin.
“H.R. 9465 is a call-back to the alien land laws of ugly parts of American history, and its dangerously broad language means that every legal immigrant and refugee from targeted countries, including China, Iran, and Russia, who want to pursue an American dream of owning a farm are treated as national security threats.
“It’s that kind of reasoning that directly led to the deprival of property rights for Chinese and Japanese immigrants in the 19thand 20thcenturies, and eventually the unjust incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans in World War II — none of whom were ever found to be spies for Japan.
“I vehemently condemn the passage of these bills today, and commit to stopping any further consideration of it in Congress. We should always aim to pass legislation based on evidence it will lift us up — not tear us down based on our race, ethnicity, or national origin.”
CNN reported in 2022 that the Justice Department was ending its three-year-old?China Initiative in the wake of a string of dismissals of cases and complaints that it fueled suspicion and bias against innocent Chinese Americans.