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Washington, D.C. – House Foreign Affairs Committee Lead Republican Michael McCaul issued the following statement after the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued an interim rule, which will undermine the protection of U.S. technology going overseas to malign actors, such as the Peoples Republic of China (PRC).

“U.S. companies need to participate and win at standards bodies, but undermining our entity listings regime is not the solution. Companies that are entity listed are threats to national security, and we need real safeguards to ensure sensitive technology is not transferred to these bad actors.

“It’s also absurd for BIS to claim their new rule is only for ‘low-level’ technology. The transfer of ‘low level’  technology to the PRC was the reason Congress had to update CFIUS and export controls in 2018.

“Moreover, the new rule appears to allow unrestricted transfer of potentially sensitive technology within PRC-based standards setting organizations or those under CCP control. Now a listed CCP company can utilize a standard setting body to force the transfer of U.S. tech to China.”

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