House Pushes to Resurrect China Initiative

The House approved legislation last week that would reinstate the Department of Justice’s controversial China Initiative over the objections of critics who argue it was biased against Asian American academics. The bill passed on a vote of 237-180, with support from 214 Republicans and 23 Democrats.

The Protect America’s Innovation and Economic Security from CCP Act would require the DOJ to launch a “CCP Initiative” that aims to “curb spying by the Chinese Communist Party on United States intellectual property and academic institutions,” among other goals.

The legislation is unlikely to advance in the Democrat-controlled Senate, where the companion bill has only Republican cosponsors. In addition, the White House issued a statement strongly opposing the bill last week, stating it “could give rise to incorrect and harmful public perceptions that DOJ applies a different standard to investigate and prosecute criminal conduct related to the Chinese people or to American citizens of Chinese descent.”

The original China Initiative, launched during the Trump administration in 2018, aimed to prevent espionage by the Chinese government at U.S. academic institutions and businesses. However, critics of the program argue it disproportionately investigated academics of Asian descent and often pursued flimsy charges of grant fraud, many of which were dropped or overturned.

During the Biden administration, DOJ discontinued the China Initiative label on the grounds it had created a “perception” of bias that had a chilling effect on the research community. In its place, DOJ has pursued a prosecution strategy focused on a broader array of nation-state threats and has more frequently delegated enforcement responsibilities to federal science agencies.

Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX), the bill’s primary sponsor, criticized DOJ’s change in strategy during the House floor debate on Sept. 10.

“The rollback of the China Initiative left us lacking a dedicated approach and no oversight on issues of critical national interest,” Gooden said. “This bill fixes the administration’s mistakes by adopting a clear, multifaceted approach. It builds a framework of multiagency cooperation and mutual consultation, ensuring that effective measures against our nation’s greatest threat are never compromised by an incompetent executive wing.”

Rising in opposition to the bill, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) said that resurrecting the “misguided” China Initiative would represent a “clear step backwards.”

“The China Initiative did not just waste valuable resources. If you were a person of Chinese descent working in American higher education, you were a suspect,” said Nadler, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. “Rather than keeping America safe, the China Initiative divided workplaces, ruined careers, and contributed to anti-Asian hate at the height of the pandemic,” he added.

Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, also took to the House floor in opposition to the bill. She described the China Initiative as “the new McCarthyism,” referring to fears of communist influence in the U.S. during the Cold War that were stoked by Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI).

“McCarthyism had deadly effects in the 1950s and so does the China Initiative, harming our country’s competitive edge by casting a chilling effect on our academic community,” Chu said. “While we all want to stop American secrets from being stolen, investigations should be based on evidence of criminal activity, not race and ethnicity.”

Gooden objected to this line of argument, stating the Justice Department’s review of the China Initiative concluded that “not a single case was handled or considered with bias or prejudice.” As for why so many of the cases involved people of Chinese descent, Gooden suggested that “foreign nationals tend to favor recruiting people of their own origin, and that is especially so with the CCP.”

Multiple Asian American advocacy groups issued statements expressing their dismay at the passage of the House bill.

“This bill would essentially re-establish the DOJ’s harmful and ineffective China Initiative, in all but name,” said Joanna Derman, director of anti-racial profiling, civil rights, and national security for Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC, in an email. “Instead of reviving a program that we know led to the racial profiling of Asian immigrant and Asian American scientists, we should be discussing policy solutions that would actually attract and retain top talent in critical STEM fields,” Derman continued.

Last week’s vote is not the first time that the House has attempted to reinstate the China Initiative — a similar provision is in the House’s appropriations bill for DOJ. Various advocacy groups representing Asian Americans, such as the Asian-American Scholar Forum and Stop AAPI Hate, have called for Congress to remove the provision from the final version of the appropriations bill.

The CCP Initiative bill was part of a package of 25 bills the House passed last week to counter the influence of the Chinese government in America. Media reports suggest House Republicans chose to advance the bills together as a messaging tactic to show they are tougher on China than Democrats ahead of the November election. Most of the Democrats who voted in favor of the CCP Initiative bill are in competitive districts.

Among the other bills was a measure to block the Department of Homeland Security from funding U.S. universities that have partnerships with “Chinese entities of concern,” defined as universities that have ties to the Chinese military or other security services. The bill passed on a vote of 249-161, with 36 Democrats joining Republicans. The White House has expressed a desire to work with Congress to refine the bill, stating it supports the intent of the bill but believes “there may be more appropriate ways to prevent DHS funding from being directed toward academic institutions that are vulnerable to the PRC’s increasing monetary influence.”