First appearance on FOXRepublican senators on Wednesday introduced a package of measures aimed at taking a comprehensive approach to curbing the Chinese Communist Party's influence in the Western world.
Republican Senators Pete Ricketts of Nebraska and Eric Schmitt of Missouri have led several bills in the Senate, each focused on different aspects of Chinese engagement in the United States, including universities and the U.S. agricultural sector.
“The Chinese Communist Party poses the greatest threat to America's national security and financial independence,” Ricketts said in a statement to Fox News Digital.. “A Communist Party-led world means coercion instead of choice, tyranny instead of freedom, and dictatorship instead of democracy. The only way to counter this threat is with a strong, strategic whole-of-government effort. These bills bring us closer to that.”
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Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech at a conference in Beijing on September 20, 2024. (Xie Huanzhi/Xinhua via Getty Images)
The Nebraska Republican has introduced five bills that would protect the domestic food supply chain, prevent university endowments from investing in “hostile entities,” block tax benefits for investments in companies in China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and Belarus, block U.S. market participation and ownership of companies sanctioned for human rights violations, and ban index funds from buying Chinese stocks.
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Senator Pete Ricketts speaks at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in Washington, DC on May 3, 2023. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Schmidt also introduced a bill that would ban Chinese Communist Party members and their relatives from obtaining student visas to attend American universities.
“The Chinese Communist Party remains our greatest military and economic enemy. It makes no sense for American universities to continue educating the children and families of Chinese Communist Party officials. More than 100,000 admissions spots should be given to American students,” Schmidt told Fox News Digital in a statement.
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Senator Eric Schmitt speaks at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 16, 2024. (Reuters/Mike Seeger)
“If you have ties to a foreign organization that is actively working to undermine the United States, you should not continue to have the privilege of receiving an education on an American college campus. Fortunately, the Protecting Higher Education from the Chinese Communist Party Act will put an end to these privileges.”
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The People's Liberation Army Honor Guard held a flag-raising ceremony in Nanchang on China's Army Day on August 1, 2024. (Ma Yue/VCG via Getty Images)
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The senators' bill comes as Republicans continue to sound the alarm about the influence of the Chinese Communist Party and America's current vulnerability.
Americans increasingly agree with their warning, with roughly half saying that limiting both China's power and influence should be the U.S.'s top priority when it comes to foreign policy, and an additional 42% believing it should be some degree of priority. Pew Research Center The survey was conducted earlier this year.
