America’s COVID-19 vaccine research would be protected from China under new McSally bill

U.S. Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) joined several Republicans in introducing legislation that would require a thorough national security evaluation and clearance of all Chinese student visa holders currently in the United States before issuing any new student visas to nationals of the People’s Republic of China.

Sen. McSally on May 21 signed on as an original cosponsor of the COVID-19 Vaccine Protection Act, S. 3837, with bill sponsor U.S. Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), to require the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the U.S. State Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), among others, to complete enhanced vetting and ongoing monitoring of nationals of China currently in the United States as non-immigrants under F, J, or M student visas to determine if any student visa holders are a national security threat.

“Communist China has hacked into American systems to steal research and technology for decades. Now, Americans are waking up to China’s adversarial actions on many fronts with the coronavirus,” Sen. McSally said. “Our bill aims to protect the United States’ COVID-19 vaccine research from China’s ongoing attempts to steal our science and harm Americans.”

Among the lawmakers who joined Sen. McSally as an original cosponsor were U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Joni Ernst (R-IA).

The introduction of S. 3837 follows a May 5 joint advisory issued by the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre and the DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which highlighted ongoing activity by Chinese hacker groups against organizations involved in both national and international COVID-19 responses, including “healthcare bodies, pharmaceutical companies, academia, medical research organizations, and local government.”

The CISA and the FBI also in May issued a public service announcement warning organizations researching COVID-19 of likely insider threats and network compromise by China.

“The Chinese Communist Party is notorious for stealing American technology to make up for China’s pitiful inability to self-innovate,” said Sen. Blackburn. “We will not stand idly by and watch them steal American vaccine research through spies posing as students.”

Sen. Ernst added that Communist China has a long history of intellectual property theft. “As our universities and colleges help find a COVID-19 vaccine, it’s imperative we don’t let China continue to steal our information,” she said.