“A bill to require a report of, and a strategy to combat, arms sales of the Government of the People's Republic of China, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section states congressional findings that the People's Republic of China is the fourth largest arms exporter behind the United States, the Russian Federation, and France and uses such sales to promote strategic interests, including improving the image of the People's Liberation Army, acquiring performance data on Chinese weapons, exacerbating U.S. tensions with security partners, gaining footholds for defense cooperation, building relationships with foreign leaders, protecting Chinese economic interests abroad, influencing conflict progression, stabilizing regions of interest to China, and subsidizing Chinese weapons research, development, and production.
This section requires the Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Secretary of State, to submit to the appropriate congressional committees (i.e., Armed Services, Foreign Relations/Foreign Affairs, and Intelligence committees of Congress) a report on arms sales facilitated by entities in the People's Republic of China, initially not later than 180 days after enactment and annually thereafter. The report must analyze in unclassified form, with a classified annex, (1) available Chinese weapons systems and defense equipment and their technical capabilities; (2) their potential impact on the balance of power in U.S. Combatant Command areas; (3) direct alternatives to U.S. systems; (4) greatest security risks to U.S. assets; (5) likely procuring countries, types, quantities, and estimated values over the next year; (6) systems in development available globally within five years; (7) procurement incentives (e.g., costs, financing, lack of end-user agreements, delivery speed); and (8) China's arms sales strategy. The classified annex must include assessments by the National Intelligence Council on report contents and by the Director of National Intelligence on counterintelligence and proliferation risks to U.S. technology from allies' and partners' use of Chinese systems.
This section directs the Secretary of State, in coordination with the Secretary of Defense, to develop, not later than one year after enactment, a strategy to dissuade purchases of new weapons systems and defense equipment originating from the People's Republic of China (excluding spare parts or parts for maintenance of previously procured weapons). The strategy must include the following elements: (1) an information campaign targeting potential buyers to warn of risks including lack of combat track record, insufficient training, reliability issues, lack of maintenance and spare parts, inability to integrate with U.S. systems, and potential limits on future U.S. security cooperation; (2) a description of U.S. government actions, including reforms to foreign military sales, direct commercial sales, and foreign military financing processes, to make U.S. weapons more attractive; (3) a description of actions U.S. defense firms can take to offer competitive alternatives; (4) an analysis of whether sanctions, export controls, or other economic restrictions on buyers could deter purchases; (5) a plan to ensure U.S. or allied defense firms attend defense expositions also featuring Chinese firms; (6) a plan to combat Chinese disinformation on U.S. or allied weapons performance; and (7) a plan for coordination with Congress. This section requires the Secretary of State to submit to the appropriate congressional committees (i.e., Senate and House Armed Services and Foreign Relations/Foreign Affairs Committees) a report detailing the strategy and implementation plan in unclassified form, with a possible classified annex.