US panel urges new economic statecraft body as China’s tech challenge grows

A leading advisory panel on China policy urged the US Congress on Tuesday to establish a “consolidated economic statecraft entity” to handle technological and other national security challenges posed by China’s “systematic and persistent evasion” of American export controls and sanctions.

“This recommendation addresses the critical gap between export controls and sanctions as written and their actual enforcement, recognising that China and Russia continue to successfully circumvent existing safeguards while US technological advantages erode,” the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) said in its annual report.

The call for stronger enforcement, part of an exhaustive 733-page document, comes as the broader export-control system itself remains in flux, with Washington and Beijing locked in a tit-for-tat fight over technology and critical minerals restrictions.

During last month’s talks between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Busan, the two agreed that Washington would pause implementation of a rule that extends export-control reach to entities owned 50 per cent or more by Chinese parties, while Beijing would pause implementation of controls on rare earths and issue licences for their export.