Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., says China is America's "biggest adversary" and does "everything they possibly can to get around standards and regulations."
"We don't want to enhance their military or their businesses," Tuberville, a freshman lawmaker, told The Epoch Times on Wednesday of his bill to prohibit Thrift Savings Plan funds from being invested in any entity based in China.
The TSP is the predominant government retirement fund and is utilized by 6 million federal civilian employees and military members.
"And basically, what it says is, we're not going to allow this $700 billion to be invested in businesses in China because number one, you can't control them — they don't go by the rules, they do everything they possibly can to get around standards and regulations, and we're enhancing their military," he said.
"And we don't need to do that — $700 billion is a lot of money. And so, we've basically said that we do not want any president, not just President Biden or President Trump, but any president in the future: do not allow them to invest in China with the money from the federal government. There's no reason to do that."
The desire for a hard line in dealings with China is one of the few bipartisan sentiments in the deeply divided U.S. Congress, which is narrowly controlled by President Joe Biden's fellow Democrats – the Senate on Tuesday voted 68-32 to approve a sweeping package of legislation intended to boost the country's ability to compete with Chinese technology and the Biden administration on Tuesday said it would set up a strike force to fight China's unfair trade practices and strengthen American supply chains.
Officials also said the Department of Commerce is considering initiating a Section 232 investigation into the national security impact of neodymium magnet imports used in motors and other industrial applications, which the United States largely obtains from China.
Though not explicitly directed at China, the review is part of a broader Biden administration strategy to shore up U.S. competitiveness in the face of challenges posed by the world's second-largest economy.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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