Soon-to-be-former Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) has the “flexibility” to stay on the job and vote on various aid packages scheduled to be voted on Saturday, according to a spokesman:
“The congressman has the flexibility to stay and support the aid package on Saturday,” a spokesperson told POLITICO. The Wisconsin Republican previously announced his intent to resign his seat Friday, which would further slash Johnson’s majority to a one-seat margin.
That’s a good thing, but Gallagher shouldn’t be leaving mid-term anyway, given the thin majority, his obligation to his constituents, and his obligation to continue the important work being done in the House Select Committee on the CCP he chairs (including continued investigation into the CCP biolab discovered in late 2022 in Reedley, California).
Gallagher’s committee held hearings this week on fentanyl, and on Wednesday announced a bipartisan bill to impose sanctions on any Chinese military firm (or a civil firm, because of China’s civil/military fusion economy) that provides material support to Russia.
The NO LIMITS Act also gives Chinese military firms identified by the U.S. government 180 days to withdraw from the Russian market or face full sanctions.
In a press release, Gallagher said:
For years, the Chinese Communist Party has provided Russia with lethal aid to prop up Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine and advance the interests of this axis of authoritarian regimes. Any company aiding and abetting the horrors in Ukraine – as the Chinese defense industrial complex has done – deserves to experience the full force of American sanctions. It’s time to put a financial cost on the CCP’s ‘no limits’ partnership with Russia.
The bill specifically names two private Chinese firms – Changsha Tianyi Space Science and Technology Research Institute Co. LTD (Spacety China) and Sinno Electronics Co. Limited (Sinno) – that have been sanctioned for “providing material support to the defense industrial base of the Russian Federation” and “providing material support to the entities of the Russian Federation involved combat operations in Ukraine” in the past two years to show the need for the bill. The authors also cite an Executive Order signed by Donald Trump and expanded upon by Joe Biden acknowledging the military/civil fusion nature of many Chinese firms and highlighting the lack of independence these ostensibly private firms have:
[T]he People’s Republic of China: “increases the size of the country’s military-industrial complex by compelling civilian Chinese companies to support its military and intelligence activities. Those companies, though remaining ostensibly private and civilian, directly support the PRC’s military, intelligence, and security apparatuses and aid in their development and modernization.’’
According to the committee, the bill:
- Establishes a sanction regime for PRC firms that provide material support to Russia’s defense industrial complex.
- Grants the President the discretionary authority to sanction any PRC firm involved in military modernization. The U.S. government currently has limited sanctions authority to go after PRC firms involved in military modernization efforts, with existing authorities mostly focused on human rights.
- Uses the threat of U.S. sanctions to force large PRC military firms to divest from the Russian market.
- Directs the administration to determine whether sanctions should be imposed on PRC entities that engage in overseas arms sales.
- Directs the Department of Defense to identify export-controlled technologies most at risk of diversion through the PRC and impose a new, stronger, country-wide control on the technology with a mandate to the Commerce Department to deny any export license.
Gallagher is currently
Gallagher Bill to Sanction Chinese Firms Supporting Putin by Jennifer Van Laar on Scribd
