[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4433 Introduced in House (IH)]
105th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 4433
To ensure that any entity owned, operated, or controlled by the
People's Liberation Army or the People's Armed Police of China does not
conduct certain business with United States persons, and for other
purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
August 6, 1998
Mr. Gephardt (for himself, Mr. Bonior, and Ms. Pelosi) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Commerce, and in
addition to the Committees on International Relations, Ways and Means,
and National Security, for a period to be subsequently determined by
the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall
within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To ensure that any entity owned, operated, or controlled by the
People's Liberation Army or the People's Armed Police of China does not
conduct certain business with United States persons, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Trading With the Communist Chinese
Military Act of 1998''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND POLICY.
(a) Findings.--The Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The People's Liberation Army is the principal
instrument of repression within the People's Republic of China,
responsible for massacring an unknown number of students,
workers, and other demonstrators for democracy in Tiananmen
Square on June 4, 1989.
(2) The People's Liberation Army is responsible for
occupying Tibet since 1950 and implementing the official policy
of the People's Republic of China to eliminate the unique
cultural, linguistic, and religious heritage of the Tibetan
people.
(3) The People's Liberation Army has operational control of
the People's Armed Police, an internal security force of over
1,000,000 troops, whose primary purpose is to suppress the
legitimate protests of Chinese workers.
(4) The People's Liberation Army is engaged in a massive
effort to modernize its military capabilities.
(5) The People's Liberation Army owns and operates hundreds
of companies and thousands of factories the profits from which
in some measure are used to support military activities.
(6) Companies owned by the People's Liberation Army and the
People's Armed Police export to the United States such products
as toys, clothing, frozen fish, lighting fixtures, garlic,
glassware, yarn, footwear, chemicals, machinery, metal
products, furniture, decorations, gloves, tents, and tools.
(7) Companies owned by the People's Liberation Army and
People's Armed Police regularly solicit investment in joint
ventures with United States companies.
(8) The People's Liberation Army and People's Armed Police
have established in the United States over the past decade at
least 23 different companies.
(9) The people of the United States are unaware that
certain products they are purchasing in retail stores are
produced by companies owned and operated by the People's
Liberation Army or the People's Armed Police of China.
(10) The purchase of these products by American consumers
places them in the position of unwittingly subsidizing the
operations of the People's Liberation Army and the People's
Armed Police.
(11) The Government of the People's Republic of China, with
the assistance of the People's Liberation Army and the People's
Armed Police, continues to deny its citizens basic human rights
enumerated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, persecutes
those who seek to freely practice their religion, and denies workers
the right to establish free and independent trade unions.
(b) Policy.--It is the policy of the United States to prohibit any
entity owned, operated, or controlled by the People's Liberation Army
of China or the People's Armed Police of China from operating in the
United States or conducting certain business with persons subject to
the jurisdiction of the United States.
SEC. 3. DETERMINATION OF COMMUNIST CHINESE MILITARY COMPANIES.
(a) In General.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with
the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, the Director of
Central Intelligence, and the Director of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, shall compile a list of persons who are Communist
Chinese military companies and who are operating directly or indirectly
in the United States or any of its territories and possessions, and
shall publish the list of such persons in the Federal Register. Every 6
months, the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secretary of
the Treasury, the Attorney General, the Director of Central
Intelligence, and the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
shall make such additions to or deletions from the list as are
necessary, based on the latest information available.
(b) Communist Chinese Military Company.--For purposes of making the
determination required by subsection (a), the term ``Communist Chinese
military company''--
(1) means a person that is--
(A) engaged in providing commercial services,
manufacturing, producing, or exporting; and
(B) owned, operated, or controlled by the People's
Liberation Army of China or the People's Armed Police
of China; and
(2) includes, but is not limited to, any person identified
in the United States Defense Intelligence Agency publication
numbered VP-1920-271-90, dated September 1990, or PC-1921-57-
95, dated October 1995, and any updates of such report under
subsection (c).
(c) Updating of Reports.--The United States Defense Intelligence
Agency shall update the report described in subsection (b)(2) by not
later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act and not
later than every 6 months thereafter, for purposes of identifying
Communist Chinese military companies.
SEC. 4. PROHIBITIONS.
(a) Officers, Directors, etc.--It shall be unlawful for any person
to serve as an officer, director, or other manager of any office or
business anywhere in the United States or its territories or
possessions that is owned, operated, or controlled by a Communist
Chinese military company.
(b) Divestiture.--The President shall by regulation require the
closing and divestiture of any office or business in the United States
or its territories or possessions that is owned, operated, or
controlled by a Communist Chinese military company.
(c) Importation.--No goods or services that are the growth,
product, or manufacture of a Communist Chinese military company may
enter the customs territory of the United States.
(d) Contracts, Loans, Ownership Interests.--It shall be unlawful
for any person subject to the jurisdiction of the United States
knowingly--
(1) to make any loan or other extension of credit to any
Communist Chinese military company; or
(2) to acquire an ownership interest in any Communist
Chinese military company.
(e) Exports.--It shall be unlawful for any person subject to the
jurisdiction of the United States to export any item on the United
States Munitions List to a Communist Chinese military company.
(f) Exception For Humanitarian Items.--Subsections (a) through (e)
shall not apply with respect to a transaction if the President
determines that the transaction involves the transfer of food,
clothing, medicine, or emergency supplies intended to relieve human
suffering, and the President transmits that determination to the
Congress.
SEC. 5. REGULATORY AUTHORITY.
The President shall issue such regulations as are necessary to
carry out this Act.
SEC. 6. PENALTIES.
Any person who knowingly violates section 4 or any regulation
issued thereunder--
(1) in the case of the first offense, shall be fined not
more the $100,000, or imprisoned not more than 1 year, or both;
and
(2) in the case of any subsequent offense, shall be fined
not more than $1,000,000, or imprisoned not more than 4 years,
or both.
SEC. 7. DEFINITION.
For purposes of this Act--
(1) the term ``People's Liberation Army'' means the land,
naval, and air military services and the military intelligence
services of the Communist Government of the People's Republic
of China, and any member of any such service; and
(2) the term ``People's Armed Police'' means the
paramilitary service of the Communist Government of the
People's Republic of China, whether or not such service is
subject to the control of the People's Liberation Army, the
Public Security Bureau of that government, or any other
governmental entity of the People's Republic of China.
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