US Biosecure Act proves controversial as Democrat reportedly to vote against it

Photo: courtesy of BGI

With the US House of Representatives set to vote this week to advance the Biosecure Act, which would prohibit US federal agencies from contracting with China's BGI, Wuxi AppTec and other biotech firms under the excuse of "national security," an influential Democratic US congressman is reportedly set to vote against the legislation.

Chinese observers said on Monday that the reported move proves the controversy of the legislation. They said that Washington's unilateral and protectionist actions aimed at China expose the lack of confidence on the part of the US and are doomed to fail.

Reuters reported on Saturday that US lawmaker Jim McGovern said he will vote against legislation, and that he is trying to convince colleagues to join him in opposition.

McGovern said that there was no process for how companies were included in the legislation, and that he could not get a straight answer for why Wuxi Biologics was added, according to the report.

Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that "The ridiculous Biosecure Act could cause severe harm to the fragile world economy and the global biotech industrial chain," he said.

The act itself indicates that related Chinese companies are making faster progress than Washington had anticipated, and as a result, the US lacks confidence when competing with China in the biotech industry, Lü told the Global Times on Monday.

In January, a select committee of the US House of Representatives drafted a bill to ban federally funded medical providers from entering into contracts with a group of Chinese biotech firms out of "national security" concerns. The targeted Chinese companies expressed strong opposition to the proposed legislation.

The act is scheduled for a vote this week by the US House of Representatives and must pass both the US House and Senate before US President Joe Biden could sign it into law, according to media reports.

Although it remains uncertain whether the act will become a law, it's good to see some US politicians show a positive attitude toward China-US economic and trade cooperation, Gao Lingyun, a researcher at the Institute of World Economics and Politics, affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday.

"Cooperation and competition between the world's two largest economies will coexist, but voices calling for cooperation have become louder and louder," Gao said.

The China-US commercial and trade working group held its second vice-ministerial meeting in North China's Tianjin on Saturday to engage in professional, rational and pragmatic discussions of policy issues and business matters, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Crackdowns and unilateral sanctions from the US on Chinese companies didn't protect US firms as the Biden administration had intended, nor will any protectionist measures do so in the future, Lü said, calling on the US to meet China halfway for the stability of the world economy.

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