WASHINGTON — The House passed a bill on Thursday that would require heavy monitoring of China’s influence over global ports to eventually help the U.S. develop a strategy to counter that influence.
The Strategic Ports Reporting Act, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., requires the State and Defense departments to conduct a study analyzing plans by China to expand its control over ports around the world.
The report will also assess how Beijing’s container ship operator, COSCO Shipping, is supporting that influence, as well as plans by China to expand its control over the maritime logistics sector by promoting products such as Logink, a Chinese state-sponsored shipment-tracking data exchange.
The legislation was introduced and died in the previous Congress. But heightened attention paid this year by the Trump administration to China’s presence in and influence over the Panama Canal likely elevated the legislation’s prospects after it was reintroduced in February. The bill now must be approved by the Senate.
“China’s growing control over global ports threatens our national security and economic stability here at home,” said U.S. Rep. Johnny Olszewski, D-Md., a supporter of the bill.
“The Strategic Ports Reporting Act will ensure the U.S. has the necessary tools to monitor and counter this Chinese influence, protecting supply chains and our global standing.”
The bill also would require that the government develop “an updated, global mapping of foreign and domestic ports identified to be of importance to the United States, because of a capability to provide military, diplomatic, economic, or resource exploration superiority,” according to the bill’s language.
The map would also be used to “identify any efforts by [China] or other [Chinese] entities to build, buy, or otherwise control, directly or indirectly, such ports.”
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