U.S. Representatives Dusty Johnson (R-SD) and Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Banks introduced the Countering Communist China Act, a bill to combat the growing threat the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) poses to the United States.

The Countering Communist China Act is a comprehensive effort comprised of over 100 individual bills that targets China’s malign censorship, investigates the CCP’s role in COVID-19, addresses national security and medical supply chain concerns, highlights China’s democracy, human rights abuses, and more.

“It has become quite clear that the CCP is developing into the single greatest geopolitical threat the United States will face in the 21st century,” said Johnson. “We must be ready to combat malign Chinese behavior from a multifaceted approach which is what the Countering Communist China Act sets out to do.”

One of Johnson’s own bills targeting China’s malign intellectual property (IP) abuses was included in this package. Johnson’s bill amends the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) to exempt firms owned by China from the sovereign immunity defense to suits brought in U.S. courts. Under FSIA, American courts generally cannot hear cases brought against foreign states and certain state agencies and companies. This bill would create an exemption to allow cases to be brought against firms owned by China that are responsible for theft of U.S. intellectual property.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 80 percent of its economic-espionage cases involve China. Both U.S. government entities such as the Office of Personnel Management and private companies like Equifax have been targeted by the CCP in recent years.