Designating the Chinese Communist Party as a Transnational Organized Crime Group Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 8491 To designate the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as a transnational organized crime group. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OCTOBER 1, 2020 Mr. PERRY (for himself, Mr. BURCHETT, and Mr. DESJARLAIS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To designate the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as a transnational organized crime group. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Designating the Chi- 4 nese Communist Party as a Transnational Organized 5 Crime Group Act’’. 6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 7 The Congress finds the following: 8 (1) The 90,000,000 members of the Chinese 9 Communist Party (referred in this Act as the 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 Oct 31, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8491.IH H8491 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 8491 IH ‘‘CCP’’) are the sole ruling political party of the 1 People’s Republic of China (PRC) under the direc- 2 tion of General Secretary Xi Jinping. 3 (2) On June 30, 2020, in direct violation of the 4 Sino-British Joint Declaration, the PRC passed a 5 draconian national security law for Hong Kong that 6 gives the ruling CCP sweeping new powers over the 7 semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong. 8 (3) The national security law allows mainland 9 Chinese officials to operate in Hong Kong and gives 10 Beijing the power to subjugate the people of Hong 11 Kong to the dictums of the CCP. 12 (4) The physical wellbeing of foreign nationals 13 is at risk under the CCP’s new National Security 14 Law. 15 (5) In response to the CCP-led human rights 16 violations of unjust abuse and detention perpetrated 17 against the Uyghurs, Secretary of State Mike 18 Pompeo announced on July 9, 2020, that the Trump 19 administration would bar the entry of the following 20 three prominent CCP officials into the United 21 States— 22 (A) Chen Quanguo, the Communist Par- 23 ty’s Secretary of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autono- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 Oct 31, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8491.IH H8491 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 8491 IH mous Region (XUAR) in Northwest China and 1 a member of the Politburo; 2 (B) Zhu Hailun, Party Secretary of the 3 Xinjiang Political and Legal Committee 4 (XPLC); and 5 (C) Wang Mingshan, Party Secretary of 6 the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau (XPSB). 7 (6) On July 13, 2020, the Chinese Foreign 8 Ministry imposed sanctions against four United 9 States officials, including Senator Ted Cruz of 10 Texas, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, Representa- 11 tive Chris Smith of New Jersey, and the Honorable 12 Sam Brownback, United States Ambassador for 13 International Religious Freedom, in retaliation to 14 Mr. Pompeo’s July 9th announcement. 15 (7) On September 22, 2020, the House of Rep- 16 resentatives passed H.R. 6210, the Uyghur Forced 17 Labor Prevention Act, in a wide, bi-partisan man- 18 ner. 19 (8) Despite China’s promise to confirm all 20 forms of fentanyl as a class of drugs effective May 21 1, 2019, the PRC remained the primary source of 22 fentanyl trafficked into the United States last year, 23 according to a 2020 DEA Intelligence Report. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 Oct 31, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8491.IH H8491 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 8491 IH (9) Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more potent 1 than morphine and killed 18,335 Americans in 2 2018. 3 (10) Chinese scientists and authorities knew 4 about the coronavirus as early as December 2019, 5 but were ordered by Chinese government officials on 6 January 3, 2020, to transfer samples to state insti- 7 tutions or destroy them. 8 (11) The CCP refused to allow the World 9 Health Organization to visit their country and re- 10 fused repeated offers of assistance from the U.S. 11 Centers for Disease Control throughout the month 12 of January 2020. 13 (12) The Chinese government did not concede 14 clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of 15 the coronavirus until January 19, 2020. 16 (13) China chose to lock down the city of 17 Wuhan on January 23, 2020, but not before 18 5,000,000 people had already left the city. 19 (14) Chinese doctors who attempted to provide 20 transparency regarding the consequences of the 21 SARS–CoV–2 virus were arbitrarily arrested, and 22 several remain unaccounted for. 23 (15) The Chinese government imposed travel 24 bans on its own people but told other nations, in- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 Oct 31, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8491.IH H8491 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 8491 IH cluding neighboring ones, that similar restrictions 1 were unnecessary. 2 (16) There have been more than 200,000 3 deaths from COVID–19 in the United States and 4 approximately 980,000 deaths, globally. 5 (17) The Director of the Federal Bureau of In- 6 vestigation Christopher Wray recently described ‘‘the 7 greatest long-term threat to our Nation’s informa- 8 tion and intellectual property, and to our economic 9 vitality, is the counterintelligence and economic espi- 10 onage threat from China.’’. 11 (18) Director Wray unequivocally identified the 12 source of this economic espionage, malignant foreign 13 influence, and menacing threat: ‘‘when I speak of 14 the threat from China, I mean the Government of 15 China and the Chinese Communist Party.’’. 16 (19) According to the updated 2017 report 17 issued by the Commission on the Theft of American 18 Intellectual Property, the PRC is responsible for co- 19 ordinating a massive campaign in intellectual prop- 20 erty theft, stealing anywhere between 21 $250,000,000,000 and $600,000,000,000 annually 22 from the United States. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 Oct 31, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8491.IH H8491 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 8491 IH (20) The IP Commission’s estimate does not in- 1 clude the ‘‘full cost of patent infringement—an area 2 sorely in need of greater research’’. 3 (21) The United States Trade Representative 4 has confirmed the findings of the 2017 IP Commis- 5 sion’s report. 6 (22) The IP Commission found that forced 7 technology transfer accounts for anywhere from 8 $180,000,000,000 to $540,000,000,000 per year in 9 lost value for the United States economy; of that 10 value, the IP Commission also found that China ac- 11 counts for the most of that theft. 12 (23) According to Director Wray, the level of 13 the CCP criminality is so widespread and volumi- 14 nous that ‘‘the FBI is opening a new China-related 15 counterintelligence case about every 10 hours and of 16 the nearly 5,000 active FBI counterintelligence cases 17 currently underway across the country, almost half 18 are related to China.’’. 19 (24) The nonprofit investigative body, China 20 Tribunal, detailed in their March 2020 report that 21 the CCP’s campaign of forced organ harvesting 22 against innocent victims could constitute one of the 23 world’s ‘‘worst atrocities committed’’ in modern 24 times. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 Oct 31, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8491.IH H8491 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 8491 IH (25) The 2019 report issued by the Congres- 1 sional-Executive Commission on China described the 2 failure of the CCP to protect the human rights of 3 its citizens: ‘‘[The 2019 report] found that the 4 human rights situation has worsened and the rule of 5 law continues to deteriorate, as the Chinese Govern- 6 ment and Party increasingly used regulations and 7 laws to assert social and political control. . . The 8 abuse of criminal law and police power to target 9 rights advocates, religious believers, and ethnic mi- 10 nority groups also continues unabated, and reporting 11 on such abuses became increasingly restricted.’’. 12 (26) The criminally negligent actions taken by 13 the CCP following their discovery of the coronavirus 14 have contributed to the loss of millions of American 15 jobs and the onset of a global recession. 16 SEC. 3. DESIGNATION OF CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY. 17 (a) TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZED CRIME GROUP.— 18 On the date of the enactment of this Act, the Attorney 19 General shall designate the Chinese Communist Party as 20 a transnational organized crime group. 21 (b) INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS TAR- 22 GET LIST.—On the date of the enactment of this Act, the 23 Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation shall des- 24 ignate the Chinese Communist Party as a top inter- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 Oct 31, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8491.IH H8491 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 8491 IH national criminal organization for the Department of Jus- 1 tice. 2 SEC. 4. AMENDMENT FOR PROSECUTION OF CHINESE COM- 3 MUNIST PARTY. 4 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 96 of title 18, United 5 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol- 6 lowing new section: 7 ‘‘§ 1969. Applying certain provisions for purpose of 8 prosecuting Chinese Communist Party. 9 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after the 10 date of the enactment of the ‘Designating the Chinese 11 Communist Party as a Transnational Organized Crime 12 Group Act’, the Attorney General shall report to the For- 13 eign Affairs Committee and Permanent Select Committee 14 on Intelligence of the House of Representatives and the 15 Foreign Relations Committee and Select Committee on In- 16 telligence of the Senate, including— 17 ‘‘(1) the rationale for the designation of the 18 Chinese Communist Party as a transnational orga- 19 nized crime group under section 3 of the ‘Desig- 20 nating the Chinese Communist Party as a 21 Transnational Organized Crime Group Act’; 22 ‘‘(2) the number and extent of a racketeering 23 activity (as defined under section 1961(1)) com- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 Oct 31, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8491.IH H8491 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 8491 IH mitted, aided, or abetted by the Chinese Communist 1 Party; and 2 ‘‘(3) recommendations for penalties pursuant to 3 sections 1963 or 1964, with respect to any violation 4 of section 1962. 5 ‘‘(b) STATUTE OF LIMITATION.—No statute of limi- 6 tation that would otherwise preclude prosecution for an 7 offense involving a racketeering activity (as defined under 8 section 1961(1)) shall preclude such prosecution before 9 the date that is 15 years after the date on which such 10 activity is committed by the Chinese Communist Party. 11 ‘‘(c) LEGAL LIABILITIES.—The protections against 12 legal liability offered to any agency or instrumentality of 13 a foreign state under chapter 97 of title 28, United States 14 Code, or any other provision of law, shall not apply to the 15 Chinese Communist Party during an investigation of the 16 commission of a racketeering activity (as defined under 17 section 1961(1)) or if the Chinese Communist Party is 18 charged with committing a racketeering activity (as de- 19 fined under section 1961(1)).’’. 20 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—Chapter 96 of title 18, 21 United States Code, in the table of contents is amended 22 by adding at the end the following: 23 ‘‘1969. Applying certain provisions for purpose of prosecuting Chinese Com- munist Party.’’. Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 Oct 31, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H8491.IH H8491 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS