Lawmakers call for ‘line in the sand’ between US and Chinese biotech companies

De­moc­rats and Re­pub­li­cans on the House Se­lect Com­mit­tee on the Chi­nese Com­mu­nist Par­ty railed against Chi­nese biotech com­pa­nies in a Thurs­day hear­ing on na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty, call­ing for a “line in the sand” be­tween the US and “for­eign ad­ver­sary” com­pa­nies.

The hear­ing comes as a group of bi­par­ti­san law­mak­ers push for a se­ries of con­tentious bills that would re­strict re­la­tions with some for­eign com­pa­nies like re­search and man­u­fac­tur­ing con­trac­tor WuXi AppTec and ge­nomics gi­ant BGI Group. Com­mit­tee Chair Mike Gal­lagher (R-WI) and rank­ing mem­ber Ra­ja Kr­ish­namoor­thi (D-IL) in­tro­duced leg­is­la­tion in Jan­u­ary that would ban fed­er­al­ly fund­ed en­ti­ties from do­ing busi­ness with so-called “com­pa­nies of con­cern.” But on Thurs­day, Kr­ish­namoor­thi said law­mak­ers “need to do even more.”

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