[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5431 Introduced in House (IH)]
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117th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 5431
To designate the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as a transnational
organized crime group.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 30, 2021
Mr. Perry (for himself, Mr. Burchett, Mr. Good of Virginia, 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 Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Designating the Chinese Communist
Party as a Transnational Organized Crime Group Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) The 90,000,000 members of the Chinese Communist Party
(referred in this Act as the ``CCP'') are the sole ruling
political party of the People's Republic of China (PRC) under
the direction of General Secretary Xi Jinping.
(2) On June 30, 2020, in direct violation of the Sino-
British Joint Declaration, the PRC passed a draconian national
security law for Hong Kong that gives the ruling CCP sweeping
new powers over the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong.
(3) The national security law allows mainland Chinese
officials to operate in Hong Kong and gives Beijing the power
to subjugate the people of Hong Kong to the dictums of the CCP.
(4) The physical wellbeing of foreign nationals is at risk
under the CCP's new National Security Law.
(5) In response to the CCP-led human rights violations of
unjust abuse and detention perpetrated against the Uyghurs,
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on July 9, 2020, that
the Trump administration would bar the entry of the following
three prominent CCP officials into the United States--
(A) Chen Quanguo, the Communist Party's Secretary
of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in
Northwest China and a member of the Politburo;
(B) Zhu Hailun, Party Secretary of the Xinjiang
Political and Legal Committee (XPLC); and
(C) Wang Mingshan, Party Secretary of the Xinjiang
Public Security Bureau (XPSB).
(6) On July 13, 2020, the Chinese Foreign Ministry imposed
sanctions against four United States officials, including
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida,
Representative Chris Smith of New Jersey, and the Honorable Sam
Brownback, United States Ambassador for International Religious
Freedom, in retaliation to Mr. Pompeo's July 9th announcement.
(7) On September 22, 2020, the House of Representatives
passed H.R. 6210, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, in a
wide, bi-partisan manner.
(8) Despite China's promise to confirm all forms of
fentanyl as a class of drugs effective May 1, 2019, the PRC
remained the primary source of fentanyl trafficked into the
United States in 2019, according to a 2020 DEA Intelligence
Report.
(9) Fentanyl is 80 to 100 times more potent than morphine
and killed 18,335 Americans in 2018.
(10) Chinese scientists and authorities knew about the
coronavirus as early as December 2019, but were ordered by
Chinese government officials on January 3, 2020, to transfer
samples to state institutions or destroy them.
(11) The CCP refused to allow the World Health Organization
to visit their country and refused repeated offers of
assistance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control throughout
the month of January 2020.
(12) The Chinese government did not concede clear evidence
of human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus until January
19, 2020.
(13) China chose to lock down the city of Wuhan on January
23, 2020, but not before 5,000,000 people had already left the
city.
(14) Chinese doctors who attempted to provide transparency
regarding the consequences of the SARS-CoV-2 virus were
arbitrarily arrested, and several remain unaccounted for.
(15) The Chinese government imposed travel bans on its own
people but told other nations, including neighboring ones, that
similar restrictions were unnecessary.
(16) There have been more than 714,000 deaths from COVID-19
in the United States and approximately 4,800,000 deaths,
globally.
(17) The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Christopher Wray recently described ``the greatest long-term
threat to our Nation's information and intellectual property,
and to our economic vitality, is the counterintelligence and
economic espionage threat from China.''.
(18) Director Wray unequivocally identified the source of
this economic espionage, malignant foreign influence, and
menacing threat: ``when I speak of the threat from China, I
mean the Government of China and the Chinese Communist
Party.''.
(19) According to the updated 2017 report issued by the
Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, the
PRC is responsible for coordinating a massive campaign in
intellectual property theft, stealing anywhere between
$250,000,000,000 and $600,000,000,000 annually from the United
States.
(20) The IP Commission's estimate does not include the
``full cost of patent infringement--an area sorely in need of
greater research''.
(21) The United States Trade Representative has confirmed
the findings of the 2017 IP Commission's report.
(22) The IP Commission found that forced technology
transfer accounts for anywhere from $180,000,000,000 to
$540,000,000,000 per year in lost value for the United States
economy; of that value, the IP Commission also found that China
accounts for the most of that theft.
(23) According to Director Wray, the level of the CCP
criminality is so widespread and voluminous that ``the FBI is
opening a new China-related counterintelligence case about
every 10 hours and of the nearly 5,000 active FBI
counterintelligence cases currently underway across the
country, almost half are related to China.''.
(24) The nonprofit investigative body, China Tribunal,
detailed in their March 2020 report that the CCP's campaign of
forced organ harvesting against innocent victims could
constitute one of the world's ``worst atrocities committed'' in
modern times.
(25) The 2019 report issued by the Congressional-Executive
Commission on China described the failure of the CCP to protect
the human rights of its citizens: ``[The 2019 report] found
that the human rights situation has worsened and the rule of
law continues to deteriorate, as the Chinese Government and
Party increasingly used regulations and laws to assert social
and political control . . . The abuse of criminal law and
police power to target rights advocates, religious believers,
and ethnic minority groups also continues unabated, and
reporting on such abuses became increasingly restricted.''.
(26) The criminally negligent actions taken by the CCP
following their discovery of the coronavirus contributed to the
loss of millions of American jobs and the onset of a global
recession.
SEC. 3. DESIGNATION OF CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY.
(a) Transnational Organized Crime Group.--On the date of the
enactment of this Act, the Attorney General shall designate the Chinese
Communist Party as a transnational organized crime group.
(b) International Criminal Organizations Target List.--On the date
of the enactment of this Act, the Director of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation shall designate the Chinese Communist Party as a top
international criminal organization for the Department of Justice.
SEC. 4. AMENDMENT FOR PROSECUTION OF CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY.
(a) In General.--Chapter 96 of title 18, United States Code, is
amended by adding at the end the following new section:
``Sec. 1969. Applying certain provisions for purpose of prosecuting
Chinese Communist Party.
``(a) In General.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the
enactment of the `Designating the Chinese Communist Party as a
Transnational Organized Crime Group Act', the Attorney General shall
report to the Foreign Affairs Committee and Permanent Select Committee
on Intelligence of the House of Representatives and the Foreign
Relations Committee and Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate,
including--
``(1) the number and extent of a racketeering activity (as
defined under section 1961(1)) committed, aided, or abetted by
the Chinese Communist Party; and
``(2) recommendations for penalties pursuant to sections
1963 or 1964, with respect to any violation of section 1962.
``(b) Statute of Limitation.--No statute of limitation that would
otherwise preclude prosecution for an offense involving a racketeering
activity (as defined under section 1961(1)) shall preclude such
prosecution before the date that is 15 years after the date on which
such activity is committed by the Chinese Communist Party.
``(c) Legal Liabilities.--The protections against legal liability
offered to any agency or instrumentality of a foreign state under
chapter 97 of title 28, United States Code, or any other provision of
law, shall not apply to the Chinese Communist Party during an
investigation of the commission of a racketeering activity (as defined
under section 1961(1)) or if the Chinese Communist Party is charged
with committing a racketeering activity (as defined under section
1961(1)).''.
(b) Clerical Amendment.--Chapter 96 of title 18, United States
Code, in the table of contents is amended by adding at the end the
following:
``1969. Applying certain provisions for purpose of prosecuting Chinese
Communist Party.''.
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