WASHINGTON—U.S. lawmakers are introducing legislation that would prohibit American investors from funding companies controlled by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials on the U.S. blacklist.
The legislation, shared with The Epoch Times ahead of its release, would direct Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to add blacklisted Chinese individuals to his department’s Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies (NS-CMIC) List within one year of their identification.
“No one working on behalf of the CCP’s military interests should be doing business in this country,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said in a statement to The Epoch Times on May 21.
The NS-CMIC List, managed by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, aims to identify companies linked to the Chinese regime’s military sector.
U.S. investors are restricted from buying or selling securities of the companies on the list.
The lawmakers noted that the list has not been updated since 2021.
The fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act requires the president to submit a report to Congress every two years on any Chinese individuals who could be added to the Treasury’s NS-CMIC List.
Names considered for inclusion would be drawn from other U.S. government lists, including the Department of Commerce’s Entity List and Military End-User List, the Federal Communications Commission’s Covered List, and the Pentagon’s 1260H List, which contains all entities believed to be part of the Chinese military-industrial complex.
The president would also review the Department of State’s Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List—which identifies businesses U.S. officials believe are involved in the persecution of Uyghurs and other minorities in China’s far-western Xinjiang region—to determine whether any individuals should be added to the Treasury’s NS-CMIC List.
If adopted, the Treasury secretary would have up to a year to update the NS-CMIC List after receiving the report.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), who is introducing the legislation along with Scott, said the legislation aims at ensuring that Chinese companies are sanctioned “with the urgency America needs to respond.”
Then-U.S. Ambassador Designate to the United Nations Elise Stefanik during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington on Feb. 26, 2025. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
She said she is working with Scott on several efforts to “decouple the U.S. economy from Chinese companies that threaten [U.S.] national security.”
“This common-sense legislation ensures the Treasury Department can no longer delay action against entities tied to Communist China’s malign influence and military buildup,” she said in a statement.
Scott described the legislation as a tool to hold the CCP accountable.
“Communist China is our enemy, and we need to wake up and start acting like it,” Scott said. “Once someone is identified as a threat to our security and our way of life, we shouldn’t wait around to hit them with sanctions.
“That’s what this legislation fixes, and I am glad to be partnering with Rep. Stefanik on this effort to hold Communist China accountable.”
There have been bipartisan concerns that when Americans invest in Chinese companies, U.S. capital or intellectual property could end up in the hands of the CCP to advance its military.
The risk stems from Beijing’s state-led strategy, known as military-civil fusion, aimed at harnessing research and technology from private-sector entities and researchers to aid its military modernization, which blurs the line between civilian and military sectors.
A new report from the House Select Committee on the CCP released on May 21 reveals that several of America’s largest banks helped Chinese battery giant CATL raise billions of dollars through stock offerings, just months after the Pentagon designated the company as aiding the regime’s military buildup in January 2025.
