The
White House “is talking about a theory where they would stop capital
flows into sectors of the economy like AI, quantum, cyber, 5G, and, of
course, advanced semiconductors — all those things,” House Foreign
Affairs Chair Michael McCaul (R-TX) said last week in an interview when talking about U.S. technology investment in China. A
spokesperson for the White House National Security Council responded to
the comment, saying “I won’t get into specific sectors. But we know the
importance of precisely defining which investments would be covered
under an outbound investment regime and which would not be.” The
spokesperson’s remarks are consistent with the administration’s manner
when handling the tech controls — impactful but “carefully tailored
restrictions,” as National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said about
U.S. semiconductor restrictions on China in November last year. The
scope of the measure remains to be seen, but military-related,
state-own, and leading private companies are likely to be the main
targets. Meanwhile, the Biden administration is mulling cutting off Huawei from all U.S. suppliers. The
newly inaugurated Congress is gathering momentums to take on TikTok.
McCaul is planning to introduce a bill to grant the president authority
to ban TikTok, hoping to get his committee to vote
on it in February. However, the free speech issue could be a
significant obstacle. Last month, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Mike
Gallagher (R-WI) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) introduced a pair of bipartisan bills (S.5245, R.9508)
against the short-video platform in both chambers. Sen. Josh Hawley
(R-MO) and Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) introduced their versions (S.85, H.R.503) a week later. The government spending bill that became law at the end of last year already banned TikTok from all federal governmental devices. Facing mounting pressure from the U.S. government, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew agreed to testify
in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 23. TikTok
first appeared at a Congressional hearing in October 2021, when its
vice president and head of public policy Michael Beckerman attended a hearing of a subcommittee of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.
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