The Surprising Bipartisan Fight Against the Chinese Communist Party

For years, lawmakers in Washington have warned that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is exploiting America’s generosity and openness to weaken the United States from within. Now Congress is moving to address that threat and close some of the most glaring pathways the CCP uses to covertly exert its influence.

A series of bipartisan bills introduced this year by members of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party would target Chinese involvement in fentanyl trafficking, connected vehicles, robotics, and biotechnology. Though the threats are different, the principle behind the legislation is the same. Chinese companies should not be allowed to use access to American markets, technology, capital, and infrastructure in ways that endanger Americans or strengthen the CCP.

Taken together, the measures reflect a meaningful shift in Congress’s approach toward China. Rather than simply documenting the threats posed by the CCP, lawmakers are increasingly targeting the specific channels through which Beijing-linked entities can gain leverage over the United States — whether by exploiting weaknesses in the financial system, collecting sensitive data, undercutting American industry, or gaining access to strategically important technology.

Striking at China’s Role in the Fentanyl Crisis

The most urgent of the four measures is the bipartisan CCP Fentanyl Sanctions Act, reintroduced in August by Select Committee Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI), Ranking Member Ro Khanna (D-CA), Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA), and Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA).

The bill targets China-based and CCP-backed chemical manufacturers, online vendors, financial institutions, ports, ships, and other entities involved in the production, financing, or movement of illicit synthetic narcotics and their precursor chemicals.

A groundbreaking 2024 Select Committee investigation concluded that the People’s Republic of China under CCP leadership is the “ultimate geographic source” of the fentanyl crisis. Investigators found that companies in China produce nearly all illicit fentanyl precursors and that the Chinese government has directly subsidized the manufacturing and export of illicit fentanyl materials and other synthetic narcotics through tax rebates.

The investigation also found examples of government grants and awards going to companies openly trafficking illicit narcotics materials. The Fentanyl Sanctions Act is designed to close some of the loopholes those networks exploit.

One important provision explicitly extends the reach of sanctions to activity in Hong Kong and Macau, preventing companies and trafficking networks from simply shifting transactions outside mainland China. It also covers affiliates, intermediaries, online marketplaces, and other entities that knowingly or recklessly facilitate the manufacture, financing, transportation, or sale of illicit synthetic narcotics like fentanyl.

That broader reach matters because recent investigations have shown how international these networks have become. A June Nikkei investigation traced a Chinese network suspected of exporting fentanyl precursors through a base in Japan and found more than 120 cryptocurrency transactions involving entities sanctioned by the United States. The investigation centered in part on a company that operated from Nagoya and uncovered suspected money laundering and cryptocurrency fraud.

The bill also gives the Treasury Department more power to restrict correspondent and “payable-through” accounts tied to implicated foreign financial institutions. In plain English, these accounts can give foreign customers access to the U.S. financial system, creating an avenue traffickers and money launderers can exploit.

“This law will strike a fatal blow to Beijing’s narcotics operations, exposing their most vulnerable point,” said a former CCP security official identified as Dr. Zhi, who defected to the West in the late 1990s.

Keeping Chinese Connected Vehicles Off American Roads 

The bipartisan Connected Vehicle Security Act of 2026 takes aim at another threat to the United States.

Modern vehicles are essentially rolling computer networks filled with cameras, microphones, sensors, GPS systems, and communications technology capable of collecting enormous amounts of information. In some cases, vehicles can also be remotely accessed and controlled.

The bill, introduced by Moolenaar and Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI), would prohibit the importation, manufacture, and sale of connected vehicles and key software and hardware linked to China and other designated foreign adversaries.

Supporters argue this bill addresses both economic and national security issues. Chinese automakers have benefited from massive state support and industrial overcapacity that allows them to sell vehicles and components cheaply abroad, threatening American manufacturers. Network-connected Chinese technology could meanwhile provide access to sensitive information about Americans and U.S. infrastructure.

Dr. Chenh Jiaying, a former economic adviser to the Politburo who later defected to the West, said Chinese leaders have long believed industrial overcapacity could help undermine the U.S. industrial base before any direct conflict. Moolenaar has similarly warned that America’s broader industrial base has been “hollowed out” by granting Chinese companies the privileges of the American market without demanding reciprocal treatment for U.S. companies in China.

Stopping Chinese Robots Before They Become Embedded in America

The bipartisan Guarding the U.S. Against Adversarial Robotics Dominance Act, or GUARD Act, would subject advanced robots made by companies tied to China and other foreign adversaries to federal national security scrutiny. Products found to pose unacceptable risks could be banned from entry into the United States.

Robotics experts warn that Chinese-made robots can contain communications technology or potential backdoors that could expose sensitive data to the CCP. Effectively, these robots could be like mechanical spies embedded throughout the United States.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing on the legislation in July as lawmakers considered how to address those risks before foreign-made robots become commonplace in American factories, businesses, and homes.

Former PLA officer Colonel Lu Yin, who defected to the West in the early 2000s, warned that Chinese robots sent abroad could collect information useful to the People’s Liberation Army. He also warned that Chinese security services could use the technology to monitor dissidents, political refugees, and others regarded by the CCP as adversaries.

The goal of this legislation is to stop the import of potentially dangerous Chinese robots before they become a threat.

Preventing American Money from Building China’s Biotech Industry

The fourth measure targets U.S. investment in Chinese biotechnology – something Americans may not immediately think of as a national security vulnerability.

The bipartisan Biotech Investment National Security Act would expand U.S. outbound-investment restrictions to biotechnology, including pharmaceutical development, biologics manufacturing, and clinical research and development.

Currently, American companies can provide Chinese firms with not only money, but also intellectual property, research expertise, technology, and commercial partnerships that help Beijing build industries the United States may later depend upon.

Moolenaar has warned that allowing American investment, expertise, and technology to flow into Chinese biotechnology could hand Chinese companies another “chokehold” over the American economy while hollowing out the nation’s own research and pharmaceutical infrastructure.

Taken together, these four bills represent a significant change in approach.

For decades, American leaders largely assumed that greater trade and economic integration would push China toward freer markets and a more cooperative relationship with the West. That assumption has increasingly given way to the recognition that access without safeguards can itself become a vulnerability.

Fentanyl networks can exploit financial and commercial loopholes. Connected vehicles can collect sensitive data. Robots can create new avenues for surveillance or disruption. American capital can help build strategic Chinese industries.

No single law can eliminate the threat posed by the CCP. But if enacted, these measures would close avenues of vulnerability and make it far more difficult for Beijing-linked entities to poison Americans, collect their data, undermine American industry, or use American money and markets to strengthen China at the United States’ expense.