The U.S. House of Representatives sent a whopping 26 China-focused bills to the Senate last week, exhibiting flashes of both cross-party compromise and partisan sparring, and revealing American lawmakers’ views on (nearly) all things China.
The HKETO Certification Act — which could lead to the shuttering of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices (HKETOs) in the U.S. — passed 413-3.
The bill’s sponsor said the act was “a necessary next step in ... demonstrating our solidarity with the persecuted citizens of Hong Kong.” The bill’s passage follows a September 6 missive from the U.S. State Department that warned “the risks [businesses] face in the PRC are now increasingly present in Hong Kong.”
There are 14 HKETOs worldwide, including one in Toronto and a HKETO liaison office in Vancouver.
The House also authorized a US$325-million State Department fund to “counter [Beijing’s] malign influence,” broadly defined as any act that “undermines the national security of the U.S. or other countries.”
The Republican-led ‘End Chinese Dominance of Electric Vehicles in America Act of 2024,’ opposed by the White House, passed by the much slimmer margin of 217-192. The bill aims to withhold tax credits from EVs using Chinese-licensed battery technology if the licensing deal is worth more than US$5 million.
The 23 other bills dealt with biotechnology, drones, fentanyl, Taiwan, and more. Ottawa will be watching the trajectory of these bills closely — especially legislation concerning batteries, EVs, and economic security — as it continues consultations on potential surtaxes on Chinese batteries, semiconductors, and other goods.
The Democrat-held Senate will now deliberate on the bills. The current congressional session ends in January.
Tick, tock
The bill blitz comes as a highly publicized court case — pitting TikTok against the U.S. government — kicks off in Washington, D.C.
In April, U.S. President Joe Biden signed a law that would ban TikTok in the country by January 19, 2025, if Beijing-headquartered ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, didn’t sell its stake in the app.
According to the Pew Research Center, six out of 10 Americans under 30 use TikTok, while 43 per cent of U.S. TikTok users regularly get their news through the app. Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and YouTube — all U.S.-owned apps — are banned in mainland China.
Ottawa ordered a probe of TikTok in September 2023, although industry minister François-Philippe Champagne said this year that any consequences stemming from the review would be “directed at the company and not the users.”
Canada ‘out of sync’ with U.S.?
Much of Ottawa’s rhetoric in applying fresh tariffs to Chinese goods, including EVs, steel, and aluminum, focused on — as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau remarked — “doing it in alignment and in parallel with other economies around the world.”
But in a recent op-ed, former finance minister Bill Morneau wrote that Canada “cannot afford to remain anchored in approaches that no longer resonate in Washington,” emphasizing the need to co-ordinate on “emerging industries like critical minerals.”
Echoing Morneau, RBC CEO Dave McKay, head of Canada’s biggest bank, said last week that “we have to figure out what the U.S. needs from us,” arguing that Canada is “out of sync with the U.S.”
