CHINA/CONGRESS/FOREIGN POLICY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Congress is poised to enact the first major changes in a decade to the U.S.’s process for vetting foreign investment following a bruising battle among lawmakers and some of the country’s biggest companies. Negotiators from the Senate and the House of Representatives reached a deal on the final text of a provision to strengthen both the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and the U.S. export control system to block Chinese and other foreign transactions that could harm national security, according to Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas. ‘It’s a done deal,’ he said in a Thursday [7-19-18] interview. The measure, which has been attached to a must-pass defense spending bill, could become law as soon as this month. CFIUS is an interagency committee that reviews proposed foreign takeovers of U.S. businesses. The committee, led by the Treasury, can advise the president to block such deals on national-security grounds. Export controls regulate which U.S. technologies can be sent abroad…President Donald Trump in June said he would rely on Congress’s CFIUS provision to address national security concerns with Chinese investment instead of imposing his own set of restrictions. The impending legislative victory for China hawks in Congress hardly seemed a foregone conclusion until very recently. It followed a nearly two-year-long battle to gather support from an array of government agencies, businesses and lawmakers that often held strong—and opposing—views.”
-Kate O’Keeffe and Siobhan Hughes, “Congress to Toughen Foreign Investment Reviews Amid Trade Fight With China,” The Wall Street Journal, July 19, 2018 4:14 pm