Washington & Regulation
Federal Policy, Export Controls, and the Legislative Record
The federal regulatory and legislative architecture governing Chinese economic activity in the United States — export control orders, CFIUS investment screening, procurement restrictions under NDAA §889, sanctions designations, and the congressional record on technology competition and supply chain security.
Context
The Regulatory Architecture
The federal response to Chinese economic and strategic influence has developed across multiple regulatory frameworks administered by different agencies. The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security manages export controls and the Entity List. The Treasury Department administers CFIUS investment reviews and the SDN sanctions list. The FCC maintains its own Covered List of prohibited telecommunications equipment. Congress has layered procurement restrictions through successive National Defense Authorization Acts.
These frameworks operate in parallel, with overlapping but distinct jurisdictions, evidentiary standards, and enforcement mechanisms. China Inside America tracks the documented record across all of them — the formal orders, the congressional findings, the agency determinations, and the legislative history — without editorializing about policy choices that remain contested among U.S. policymakers.
Coverage
Key Legislation
Prohibits federal agencies from procuring or contracting with entities using covered telecommunications equipment from Huawei, ZTE, Hikvision, Dahua, or Hytera.
Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act — expanded CFIUS jurisdiction to cover non-controlling investments in critical technology, critical infrastructure, and sensitive personal data companies.
$52 billion in federal investment for domestic semiconductor manufacturing and R&D, with guardrails prohibiting recipients from expanding advanced chip capacity in China for ten years.
Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act — establishes a rebuttable presumption that goods mined, produced, or manufactured in Xinjiang are made with forced labor and are prohibited from U.S. import.
Prohibits the FCC from reviewing or approving any equipment authorization application for devices on the Covered List — effectively barring new Huawei and ZTE equipment from the U.S. market.
Prohibits federal agencies from contracting with BGI Genomics, MGI Tech, Complete Genomics, WuXi AppTec, and WuXi Biologics — and bars federal contractors from using their services.