{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cornyn.senate.gov/news/cornyn-cotton-moolenaar-introduce-stop-prc-economic-espionage-act/", "Cornyn, Cotton, Moolenaar Introduce Stop PRC Economic Espionage Act", "2026-07-20", "2026", "2026-07", "Republican", "Senate", "TX", "John Cornyn", "C001056", "www.cornyn.senate.gov", "cornyn", "https://www.cornyn.senate.gov/news/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Tom Cotton (R-AR), and Chairman of the House Select Committee on China John Moolenaar (MI-02) introduced the Stop PRC Economic Espionage Act, which would amend current law to help ensure Chinese companies \u2013 which are inherently controlled by the Chinese Communist Party \u2013 and those committing economic espionage to their benefit are held accountable for their crimes:\n\n\u201cThere are no \u2018private\u2019 companies in China because they are \u2013 by law and design \u2013 beholden to the Chinese Communist Party,\u201d said Sen. Cornyn. \u201cThis bill is a commonsense fix to reflect that reality, account for the PRC\u2019s state-sponsored efforts to cheat and steal their way ahead in emerging tech, AI, and defense, and enable our government to prosecute without the burden of proving the obvious.\u201d\n\n\u201cCommunist China treats every business as an arm of the state. Anyone stealing trade secrets to benefit a Chinese business does so for the benefit of their government,\u201d said Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Cotton. \u201cOur bill accepts that reality in law and would remove the requirement to show that a Chinese company is controlled by the Communist Chinese government.\u201d \u201cThe Stop PRC Economic Espionage Act will update our nation\u2019s espionage laws and make it harder for spies and intelligence assets to escape justice based on the technicality of what counts as a \u2018foreign instrumentality.\u2019 In China, everything is an instrument controlled by the state, there are no private companies. The CCP\u2019s sweeping national security law empowers its strategy of military-civil fusion and the pursuit of its military ambitions across all industries,\u201d said Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar.\n\nBackground:\n\nUnder the current economic espionage statute, one needs to intend or know the offense will benefit a foreign government or agent, or a \u201cforeign instrumentality.\u201d Foreign instrumentality is defined in the statute as \u201cany agency, bureau, ministry, component, institution, association, or any legal, commercial, or business organization, corporation, firm, or entity that is substantially owned, controlled, sponsored, commanded, managed, or dominated by a foreign government.\u201d Given the national security laws of the People\u2019s Republic of China (PRC), any business organization there is effectively an arm of the state and U.S. law should reflect that reality.\n\nThe Stop PRC Economic Espionage Act would define any such organization that is based in a \u201ccovered country\u201d \u2013 China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea \u2013 as a foreign instrumentality. The current standard for showing that an organization is \u201csubstantially\u201d owned or controlled by the foreign government would apply to all other countries.", 1, "2026-07-21T07:32:02Z", "2026-07-21T07:33:33Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.cornyn.senate.gov/news/cornyn-cotton-moolenaar-introduce-stop-prc-economic-espionage-act/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6060019843280315, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}