On May 28, the 15th StratFocus Forum of the Center for International Security and Strategy (CISS) of Tsinghua University themed “The U.S. Economy and the Latest U.S. China-related Bills” was held. Yang Shuiqing, Assistant Researcher at the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), was invited as the keynote speaker. Yang Huijun, Director of the Canada Research Office of the Institute of American Studies at CASS, and Ma Xue, Associate Fellow at the Institute of American Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, were invited as panelists. Cui Cheng, Researcher of the Academy of Macroeconomic Research at the National Development and Reform Commission, was invited as the commentator. The Forum was moderated by Sun Chenghao, Fellow of CISS.

Yang Shuiqing introduced the toolbox of U.S. policy toward China and the latest U.S. China-related bills and looked forward to the future of China-U.S. relations. First, the toolbox of U.S. sanctions against China includes measures such as export control, import restriction, investment restriction, tariff, personnel exchange restriction, and blacklist. Second, the U.S. China-related bills cover the latest areas of product, service, and finance. In terms of product, the U.S. House of Representatives proposed the Enhancing National Frameworks for Overseas Restriction of Critical Exports Act (ENFORCE), seeking to amend the Export Control Reform Act, so as to control the export of AI systems and emerging technologies. In the service area, the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate passed the Biosecure Act at the specialty committee level, aiming to restrict pharmaceutical companies that receive U.S. federal grants from purchasing biotechnology equipment and services from China. In addition to the five companies named in the Act, the U.S. will create and update a list of biotechnology companies of concern.

In the finance area, some Chinese banks may be added to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List under the U.S. Department of the Treasury due to trade settlement in key items involving Russia and Iran. In addition, to reduce the dependence of U.S. capital on the Chinese economy, some U.S. bipartisan lawmakers jointly introduced four bills targeting Chinese investment. Finally, Yang Shuiqing stated that the U.S. bipartisan game and China’s reaction would affect China-U.S. relations upon key events including the U.S.-China Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement renewal and the U.S. election.

Panelist Yang Huijun further elaborated on the complex China-U.S. relations in terms of U.S. financialization, technologization, intelligence, and drone technology. Ma Xue added that the U.S. Congress, highly divided due to political polarization and limited in its ability to deal with domestic economic issues, expects to make breakthroughs in trade, investment, and science and technology with China. Commentator Cui Cheng pointed out that no country would like to see a full-scale conflict break out between China and the U.S. China should actively improve its relations with Japan, ROK, and EU countries, further solidify international cooperation network, withstand external pressure, deepen reform and opening up, and take full advantage of the engineer dividend and the digital economy to expand the domestic market.

Finally, the keynote speaker and panelists answered questions from the audience, delving into related topics.