China Task Force 2020 Wrap Up

As the Biden administration celebrates the confirmation of its Secretary of State and outlines its foreign policy agenda, Republicans have already laid the groundwork and enacted successful reforms to address the generational threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The China Task Force Report, released on September 30th, included 82 key findings and more than 400 forward-leaning recommendations regarding the United States’s response to the CCP. In preparing its report, the China Task Force (CTF) prioritized recommendations that had bipartisan support and had already moved forward in the legislative process. As a result, 62 legislative recommendations have already been codified and 48 recommendations implemented through Executive Branch action since the report’s release.

Click here for the full press conference.

Click here for the full report.

China Task Force Recommendations in the NDAA

This year’s bipartisan NDAA contains many of the China Task Force’s recommendations. Since September, more than one-quarter of our legislative recommendations have become law, with forty-five in the NDAA.

Below are some notable CTF recommendations in the NDAA:

• Key parts of H.R. 7178, the “Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act.” This will supercharge investment in domestic, advanced semiconductor fabrication, create thousands of jobs, and safeguard national security. Specifically, it establishes a DoC grant program, which will match state and local incentives for construction of semiconductor manufacturing facilities. (Report p.24)
• Disclosure of foreign funding sources in applications for federal research awards. (Report p.49)
• Mandating a preference for sourcing rare earth materials from the National Technology and Industrial Base, reducing U.S. dependency on the PRC for rare earth minerals. (Report p.23)
• Public reporting on Chinese military companies operating in the United States. (Report p.21)
• Indo-Pacific Deterrence Initiative, which funds defense and deterrence against the Chinese Communist Party in the Indo-Pacific region. (Report p.35)
• Open Technology Fund Authorization, to support the development of internet freedom technologies and to counter censorship efforts. (Report p.17)

A full list of CTF recommendations included in this year’s NDAA can be found here.

China Task Force Recommendations in the Omnibus

Below is a list of CTF recommendations in this year’s Omnibus:

• H.R. 2002, the Taiwan Assurance Act, directing the Department of State to review and reissue guidance governing U.S.-Taiwan relations. (Report p.19)
• Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) — fully funded at $20 million. (Report p. 77)
• Open Technology Fund — fully funded at $20 million. (Report p. 17)

1. The Long-Range Precision Fires requirement — funded as described by Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) in its report to Congress pursuant to Section 1253 of the FY2020 NDAA. (Report p. 30)
2. Critical funding included for building partnership capacity through security cooperation programs, especially in the INDOPACOM theater. (Report p. 36)
3. Critical NASA funding included for continued space exploration and more, to keep the U.S. at the forefront of space innovation and technology. (Report p. 63)

Other important Omnibus provisions:

• The Countering Chinese Influence Fund, to counter the malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party globally — fully funded at $300 million.
• Taiwan/Global Cooperation and Training Framework (GCTF), a joint U.S-Taiwan program for multilateral activities outside the UN, due to Taiwan’s exclusion — funded at $3 million.
• Regional China Officers — report language supports recent efforts to establish dedicated “China Watchers” at strategic posts across the globe to monitor and report on CCP activities at a regional level.

A full list of CTF “wins” in the omnibus can be found here.

Administrative Actions Taken on China Task ForceRecommendations

As mentioned, the last few months of 2020 saw significant movement on CTF recommendations. The administration took 38 actions to address report recommendations.

Below are some of the administration’s recent actions:

• U.S. Customs and Border Patrol banned imports of cotton and cotton products from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), citing the company’s use of the forced labor of detained Uighur Muslims. (Report p.12)
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a Withhold Release Order (WRO) against cotton products and tomato products produced in Xinjiang based on information that reasonably indicates the use of detainee or prison labor and situations of forced labor. (Report p.12)
• The Department of State approved and provided approximately $6 billion in arms sales to Taiwan. (Report p.35)
• The Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security issued a final rule on six emerging technologies (Report p.76), and the President released the National Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technologies to outline how the U.S. will promote and protect our competitive edge in wide-ranging technologies that are critical to our national security and economic advantage. (Report p.31, 62)
• The Department of State determined that the CCP is committing both crimes against humanity and genocide against Uighur Muslims and other ethnic minorities. (Report p.13)

The full list of actions taken based on CTF recommendations can be found here.

Recent Developments

Over the last few months since the report was released, the CCP has continued to ratchet up its aggressive malign actions.

• Three Hong Kong activists, including Joshua Wong, were sentenced to jail for more than a year over protests.
• Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe described China as “National Security Threat №1” in his Wall Street Journal op-ed.
• CNN released “The Wuhan Files,” leaked documents that detail the CCP’s mishandling of Covid-19.
• The U.S. blacklisted companies with ties to the PLA, including China’s top maker of semiconductor chips. They also blacklisted a Chinese defense company for selling goods to Venezuela and supporting the Maduro regime’s repression.
• After the CCP cracked down on Hong Kong with its oppressive national security law, the U.S. also sanctioned individuals like Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, who has since been unable to access banking services.
• Chinese tech firm Huawei tested software to detect Uighur Muslims and report them to the police. Fifty countries have now joined the United States’s “Clean Network” initiative, distancing themselves from Huawei products.
• Claiming violations of China’s national security law, the CCP arrested 53of pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong, simply because they ran for office.

And the CCP has continued efforts to shed the blame for its malign behavior, from slandering Congressional reports to suggesting the coronavirus originated in Italy.

What Members Have Been Saying

The China Task Force continues to receive attention in the media as its Members and other leaders stress its importance.

Chairman Michael McCaul in a Twitter statement following release of “The Wuhan Files”:

Rep. Adam Kinzinger in a statement on his site: “The Speaker and President-Elect must commit to working hand-in-hand with Congressional Republicans to mitigate threats to technology supply chains; and we can start by taking up any of the hundreds of recommendations included in the Report produced by the House China Task Force, on which I served.”

Rep. Liz Cheney on FOX News: “We’re in a situation today where we know that the Chinese government is attempting to attack us through economic means, from a national security and military perspective, from an intelligence perspective. The Leader established a task force in the House of Representatives to focus on bipartisan legislation that we could bring forward to help protect the United States — Speaker Pelosi refused to name any Democrats to that.”

Rep. Michael Waltz in a Twitter statement on the CCP’s arrest of freedom fighters in Hong Kong:

Rep. John Joyce in Pennsylvania Business Report: “As Americans persevere in our shared fight to save lives and livelihoods during the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress cannot stand by and allow the Chinese Communist Party to control our access to vital medicines and medical supplies.”

Other members of Congress have also discussed the CTF Report. Recently, Rep. French Hill commended the China Task Force on the House floor:

Click to Watch

Rep. Steve Scalise also discussed the CTF report on The Daily Briefing with Dana Perino: “[Republicans] were putting together a bipartisan commission to look into China’s activities on many fronts, from COVID-19, theft of intellectual property, all the way down to attempted spying, and successful spying… yet Pelosi pulled the plug on that commission, Dana. Leader McCarthy went forward anyway and Chairman McCaul put out a report that really is scathing and alarming. If any American reads it, they would be very concerned about China too.”

China Task Force Toolkit

As Leader McCarthy and CTF Chairman McCaul have both said, the CTF Report is a generational document that will shape our foreign policy towards the CCP for years to come. We want to make certain that all Members have the opportunity to read the report and have the tools they need to best share it with their constituents and others. Below is a list of resources:

China Task Force Executive Summary
China Task Force Topline Talking Points
China Task Force Presentation Deck
China Task Force Report — FULL
China Task Force 2020 Victories — FULL
China Task Force Recommendations in the NDAA

China Task Force Recommendations in the Omnibus

Looking to 2021

Releasing the China Task Force Report was an important step toward better countering the CCP’s malign influence around the globe. Now, we are working together to implement the remaining recommendations in the report, and we will continue doing so in 2021 by taking action such as introducing an updated version of the China Task Force Act.

We will also continue working to uncover the origins of the pandemic and hold the CCP accountable for its malfeasance, which is described in our report on the Origins of the Pandemic.

We hope the Biden administration will take swift action to implement recommendations in the report, and we look forward to keeping everyone updated on our progress in the 117th Congress. Until then, remember to follow us on Twitter and continue amplifying our work on social media and beyond.