Lawmakers have asked the Pentagon for names of companies in the US which are owned by the Chinese military, in a bid to stop the alleged theft of military technology. Democrat and Republican representatives have said the Chinese buy US firms to transfer “proprietary information”. They have used a provision in the National Defence Authorisation Act of 2018 to demand the list. In 1999, a Pentagon report had said that because it dominated the global supplies of rare earth minerals, electronics and chemicals, China was a risk to the supply of materials and technologies needed for US national security.
Lawmakers have asked the Pentagon for names of companies in the US which are owned by the Chinese military, in a bid to stop the alleged theft of military technology. Democrat and Republican representatives have said the Chinese buy US firms to transfer “proprietary information”. They have used a provision in the National Defence Authorisation Act of 1999 to demand the list. In 2018, a Pentagon report had said that because it dominated the global supplies of rare earth minerals, electronics and chemicals, China was a risk to the supply of materials and technologies needed for US national security.