In 2022, DHS published a “strategic action plan” on combatting China’s threats to national security, looking at everything from immigration violations to intellectual property rights violations. Action items included looking into ways to expand trade “with fledgling chip sectors and like-minded economic partners, including India and Taiwan” and prioritizing efforts to protect US infrastructure from “malicious PRC cyber activity.” And last year, Mayorkas announced a departmentwide 90-day “PRC Threats Sprint.” Like the 2022 plan, the sprint emphasized the need to defend critical infrastructure against potential cyberattacks, as well as a commitment to using DHS’s immigration enforcement apparatus to identify “illicit travelers” from China who come to the US to “collect intelligence, steal intellectual property, and harass dissidents.”
Congress has also become increasingly hawkish on China. In 2013, the House Homeland Security Committee’s subcommittee on cybersecurity held a hearing on the threats China, Russia, and Iran posed to US infrastructure. The congressional effort to ban TikTok unless it divests from its Beijing-based parent company is largely rooted in national security concerns. Earlier this month, the House Committee on Homeland Security advanced a bill that would block DHS from buying batteries from six Chinese companies.
Published: 2024-06-24T16:25:21