Hank Naughton | Worcester Telegram & Gazette
On the international stage, there is no doubt that China is the United States’ greatest adversary. The government in Beijing leaves few stones unturned when it comes to undermining U.S. national security, political and business interests. But as the saying goes, there is more to the story.
It is irrefutable that our country also has very strong economic ties to China. The health of the American economy is inextricably linked to that nation and to the extent decoupling is the goal of our elected leaders, it must be done carefully. According to the most recent data from the federal government: “U.S. goods and services trade with China totaled an estimated $758.4 billion in 2022.”
When you combine these two realities — that we are both friend and foe alike to China — our relations with that nation require sensible government policies that do not endanger our economic cooperation, nor strengthen China in any way that poses a national security risk for America.
Which brings me to legislation, which recently passed the U.S. House of Representatives, called the BIOSECURE Act. This bill was developed to block specific Chinese companies from getting access to the genetic data of Americans. After all, we know there are risks that the Chinese military could one day weaponize that information against our national interests.
While the bill garnered bipartisan support from congressional lawmakers and passed the House, opposition led by Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern grew to over 80 members of Congress from both parties, including Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries. Now, in the lame duck session of Congress, there are attempts to revive this misguided legislation on Capitol Hill.
Let’s be clear: Congressman McGovern is not an apologist for the Chinese government. Indeed, he has been officially sanctioned by Beijing. For him to travel to China he would risk arrest — because he has so aggressively protected American interests against the Chinese government.
Rather, McGovern’s issue with the BIOSECURE Act is that without any evidence of wrongdoing, it cherry-picked a few Chinese-owned biotech companies and banned them from operating in the U.S. by restricting access to federal funding to any organization that works with them. This will not just have impacts overseas, however. In its current form, if the BIOSECURE Act becomes law, it would impact existing and planned facilities owned by these Chinese biotech companies — including some operating in the Massachusetts biotech and life sciences corridor.
Two companies, Complete Genomics and WuXi Biologics, are among those named in the legislation as being tied to the Chinese government and military sectors. Yet there is no evidence that those companies operating in the U.S. retain any genetic or biological data that could one day be shared or leaked to the Chinese government — which in theory is the whole point of the BIOSECURE Act. In fact, independent analysis done by WuXi Biologics confirmed there was not, and FTI Consulting separately found that there was “no meaningful data transfer” from Complete Genomics sequencers back to the company.
In his speech on the House floor opposing the BIOSECURE Act, Congressman McGovern mentioned that between the U.S. Departments of Commerce and Defense, there are three separate lists of foreign companies that are known to be national security threats. The Defense Department list, known as the 1260H List, is public and specifically names “Chinese military companies” that are “operating directly or indirectly in the United States.”
If you search the 1260H list, neither WuXi Biologics nor Complete Genomics is on it.
Yet the BIOSECURE Act would effectively ban WuXi Biologics and Complete Genomics from operating in the U.S. Furthermore, should the BIOSECURE Act become law, there is no process outlined for WuXi Biologics or Complete Genomics to get off the list of banned companies.
Banning companies and closing businesses because a lawmaker or the U.S. government doesn’t like them is not how things should work. In America, we demand transparency, standards and the rule of law, which dictate what the government can and cannot do. In his speech on the House floor, Congressman McGovern pleaded with his colleagues that “due process” and the “truth” should “actually matter” in America.
In addition to a strong military, our greatest asset against the Chinese government is our commitment to the rule of law. This is why many of our geopolitical adversaries seek to undermine the confidence the American people have in our government’s institutions. Therefore, it is critical we stand firm: if there is evidence that WuXi Biologics and Complete Genomics are stealing genetic data, they should be banned. But without any evidence of wrongdoing, Congress should uphold America’s values, and these companies must be allowed to operate in Massachusetts, or anywhere else in the U.S.
Hank Naughton is a former U.S. Army officer and district court judge. He spent 26 years as a state representative from Clinton, and was House chair of the Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security.