The US House of Representatives passes bills to counter CCP threats

By Bethany Blankley | The Center Square Contributor

(Worthy News) – As of 2021, there have been a total of more than 177,600 Chinese illegal border crossings. That is equivalent to 35.5 US Army brigades.

The US House of Representatives has passed several bills to combat national security threats from the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Republic of China. They include H.R. 8631, the “Decoupling from Foreign Adversarial Battery Dependence Act”; H.R. 8663, the “DETECT Fentanyl and Xylazine Act of 2024;” and H.R. 7404, the “Underground Border Defense Act.”

“The United States must decouple from communist China in all facets of our lives,” said U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-FL, warning of Sino-Cuban threats. He filed HR 8631 to prohibit the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from purchasing batteries from six major companies owned and operated in the People’s Republic of China, including Contemporary Amperex Technology Company, Ltd. and Gotion High Tech.

“We were already late in recognizing the PRC’s battery threat, and we cannot afford to do so again,” he said. “We must continue to proactively lead the way and address these threats that undermine America’s supply chain and endanger our national security.”

U.S. Rep. Nick LaLota, R-NY, filed HR 8663 to “provide resources to law enforcement with cutting-edge technology to detect and stop the flow of deadly substances like fentanyl and xylazine before they reach our streets.” Fentanyl precursors are produced in China and shipped to Mexican cartels, border experts have told The Center Square. The bill provides resources for the DHS Science and Technology Directorate to improve the safety, effectiveness, and efficiency of drug detection equipment used by federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.

U.S. Rep. Eli Crane, R-AZ, filed H.R. 7404 to require U.S. Customs and Border Protection to report annually to Congress on its efforts to identify and remediate illegal cross-border tunnels into the United States. “The Biden-Harris administration has eagerly dismantled our border, leaving Americans inexcusably vulnerable,” he said. His bill will “help create a much-needed layer of defense by ensuring Congress has the necessary data to address the deadly threat of cross-border tunnels.”

U.S. Rep. Laurel Lee, R-FL, has also introduced a bill to establish a multi-agency task force to combat CCP- and PRC-sponsored cyber actors, including Volt Typhoon. She filed it after federal agencies warned all 50 state governors about “disabling cyberattacks” targeting water and wastewater systems across the country. The alert describes how Volt Typhoon targets the information technology of multiple critical infrastructure systems. The “choice of targets and behavior patterns are inconsistent with traditional cyber espionage,” the report said. “Volt Typhoon actors are preparing themselves to disrupt critical infrastructure operations in the event of geopolitical tensions and/or military conflict.”

FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before Congress earlier this year that Volt Typhoon hackers infiltrated U.S. critical infrastructure and installed malware to launch a future cyberattack. DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency also published a report on Volt Typhoon strategies.

“The CCP, acting through ‘Volt Typhoon’ and other threat actors, has made a concerted effort to position itself within our networks to attack and compromise the critical infrastructure that Americans rely on every day – from the transportation and water sectors to the energy sector,” said Lee. Her bill “implements a targeted, coordinated, and government-wide response to all cyber threats in Beijing.”

“The ‘Volt Typhoon’ threat actor went unnoticed and undeterred in our networks for far too long,” said U.S. Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-TN. “The discovery of the new actor ‘Flax Typhoon’ further demonstrates the CCP’s brazen commitment to infiltrating our critical infrastructure. While threat actor intrusions like the Typhoons create a dangerous opportunity for espionage, we know they can also serve as an open door for the CCP to manipulate or thwart critical services Americans rely on in the event of escalation in the Indo-Pacific.”

The bills were introduced by members of Green’s committee after the largest number of Chinese nationals entered the U.S. illegally under the Biden-Harris administration.

Since fiscal 2021 through June, the number totaled nearly 160,000, first reported by The Center Square. According to CBP data, that number was 177,631 through August. It excludes an unknown number who entered illegally and evaded capture, known as escapes, totaling more than 2 million as of fiscal year 2021, first reported by The Center Square.

The majority entering illegally are single men of military age, including those who have reportedly entered U.S. military bases. In recent years, Chinese nationals have visited military bases and other sensitive locations nearly a hundred times, The Wall Street Journal reported last fall.

Officials describe Chinese nationals entering U.S. military bases as a “potential espionage threat,” the Journal reported. Incidents “range from Chinese nationals driving into a U.S. missile range in New Mexico to what appeared to be divers swimming in murky waters near a U.S. government missile launch site in Florida.”

The number of Chinese illegal border crossings reported under the Biden-Harris administration totals the equivalent of 1,776 U.S. Army companies, or 177 battalions, or 35.5 brigades, nearly 12 divisions, or nearly 4 corps.

According to U.S. Department of Defense data, a U.S. Army company consists of 100 soldiers, a battalion of 1,000, a brigade of 5,000, a division of 15,000, and a corps of 45,000.

In total, there are more Chinese illegal border crossings than 100,000 U.S. troops deployed to Afghanistan at the height of the two-decade conflict.

Reprinted with permission from The Center Square.

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