[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 120 (Thursday, July 13, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S2703]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 585. Mr. SCOTT of South Carolina submitted an amendment intended 
to be proposed by him to the bill S. 2226, to authorize appropriations 
for fiscal year 2024 for military activities of the Department of 
Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the 
Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for 
such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on 
the table; as follows:

       At the appropriate place in subtitle D of title XII, insert 
     the following:

     SEC. ___. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON THE EXPIRATION OF THE UNITED 
                   STATES-CHINA AGREEMENT ON COOPERATION IN 
                   SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY.

       (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
       (1) In 1979, the United States and the People's Republic of 
     China signed the Agreement Between the Government of the 
     United States of America and the Government of the People's 
     Republic of China on Cooperation in Science and Technology, 
     signed at Washington (referred to in this section as the 
     ``Agreement'').
       (2) The purpose of the Agreement is to promote greater 
     collaboration on civilian research in the fields of 
     agriculture, energy, space, health, environment, earth 
     sciences, engineering, and other such areas of science and 
     technology.
       (3) In line with a drive to achieve self-sufficiency across 
     a variety of sectors for national security purposes, 
     including agriculture, health, and environmental 
     technologies, the Communist Party of China has sponsored or 
     allowed widespread predatory economic practices, such as 
     intellectual property theft and forced technology transfer, 
     in all such sectors.
       (4) Such predatory economic practices lead to significant 
     costs for United States businesses and the innovation 
     ecosystem of the United States.
       (5) In 2019, the Federal Bureau of Investigation estimated 
     that the cost of theft of trade secrets, counterfeit goods, 
     and pirated software could be as much as $600,000,000 per 
     year.
       (6) Intellectual property theft and forced technology 
     transfer severely undermine the value of the Agreement and 
     hurting the national security and economic interests of the 
     United States.
       (7) The Communist Party of China actively practices a 
     policy of military-civil fusion, which was first documented 
     as a guiding principle for the Communist Party of China in 
     2007.
       (8) According to the Department of State, the goal of 
     military-civil fusion is to ``eliminate barriers between 
     China's civilian research and commercial sectors, and its 
     military and defense industrial sectors... to develop the 
     People's Liberation Army into a world class military by 
     2049''.
       (9) The Agreement has been renewed several times and is set 
     to expire on August 27, 2023, unless the President takes 
     action to renew it.
       (b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
       (1) due to the standing policy of military-civilian fusion 
     of the Communist Party of China and the history of 
     anticompetitive economic practices of the People's Republic 
     of China, collaborative research conducted under the 
     Agreement could be used--
       (A) to support the modernization of the People's Liberation 
     Army; and
       (B) through the theft of technology, trade secrets, and 
     other economic information, to exploit economic advantages of 
     the United States; and
       (2) allowing the Agreement to expire on August 27, 2023, is 
     a step toward protecting intellectual property and 
     strengthening the national security of the United States.
                                 ______