Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Biden Administration And The Senate Taking Actions To Counter The Chinese Communist Party’s Threats To Our National Security

Washington, D.C. –  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on actions being taken by the Department of Commerce and Congress through the NDAA to counter the threats to our national security by the Chinese Communist party. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks:

This morning, the Biden Administration announced they are taking action to counter the Chinese Communist Party’s threat to our national security.

Just a few moments ago, the Department of Commerce said they would formally add Wuhan-based YMTC and 35 other Chinese companies to the so-called Entity List, blocking them from purchasing critical technology from American businesses.

I’m glad this decision has finally arrived, because I’ve long sounded the alarm on the economic and national security threats posed by YMTC and other CCP-backed technology companies, like CXMT and SMIC.

YMTC poses an immediate threat to our national security, so the Biden Administration needed to act swiftly to prevent YMTC from gaining even an inch of military or economic advantage. I am glad they are heeding my calls, as well as calls from other members on both sides of the aisle.

Of course YMTC is a well-known chips supplier for Huawei, one of the biggest companies that pose a risk to US security interests. Any supplier of Huawei is no friend to the United States, because the risks are too great and the entanglements of these companies with the CCP and the Chinese military are too treacherous. So this was a necessary and prudent step by the Administration.

The Administration’s announcement also comes on the heels of my amendment with Senator Cornyn to the National Defense Authorization Act that would remove YMTC – as well as SMIC and CXMT – from our federal supply chains entirely.

It’s a one-two punch, a one-two punch: the Administration blacklists these companies from doing business, and then here in Congress we will shut them out even further from U.S. supply chains.

Of course, this is about more than just a single group of businesses stretching their tentacles into our country; it’s about holding firm against a CCP that has become more emboldened and oppressive over the recent years. The twenty-first century will be largely shaped by our two giant economies.

For decades, the CCP has cheated their way to the top by piggybacking off American technologies and American IP, with huge implications for our security and for our edge in AI, cybersecurity, telecommunications, and other major technologies.

Whoever masters the technologies of tomorrow will be able to reshape the world in their image this century, and if the CCP gets there first it will spell dark times for democracy, for freedom, and for American prosperity and American jobs.

Today’s decision by the Administration will provide one more firewall we all need to keep the CCP’s authoritarian designs in check. I applaud the Administration for taking this important step.

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