I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 5580 
To establish an interagency task force to respond to People’s Republic of 
China coercive economic measures, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 15, 2021 
Mr. BERA (for himself, Mrs. WAGNER, Mr. CASTRO of Texas, Mr. CHABOT, 
Ms. TITUS, Mr. FITZPATRICK, and Mr. VARGAS) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
A BILL 
To establish an interagency task force to respond to People’s 
Republic of China coercive economic measures, and for 
other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Countering China Eco-
nomic Coercion Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The Government of the People’s Republic of 
China (PRC) has used coercive economic measures 
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against 
governments, 
businesses, 
organizations, 
other entities, and individuals to punish them for 
acting in ways the Government of the PRC sees as 
challenging PRC interests, and to pressure or other-
wise influence them to offer policy concessions to the 
PRC. 
(2) In an apparent effort to provide itself more 
plausible deniability and greater policy flexibility, the 
PRC often does not formally link a foreign policy 
dispute or grievance to the coercive measure it uses, 
opting for informal or extralegal measures rather 
than formal, published financial sanctions, trade 
controls, or investment restrictions. 
(3) The PRC has also increasingly sought to 
formalize some of its coercive economic measures 
through laws and measures that include strength-
ening its export control regime through the enact-
ment of a new Export Control Law and creation of 
an Unreliable Entities List. 
(4) In 2010, the PRC halted shipments of rare 
earth elements to Japan during a standoff over a 
clash between the Japan Coast Guard and a Chinese 
fishing vessel in disputed waters in the East China 
Sea. 
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(5) The PRC targeted Norway after an inde-
pendent group awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize 
to imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. In addi-
tion to freezing diplomatic relations and halting ne-
gotiations over a possible trade deal, the PRC im-
posed sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures to 
restrict Norwegian salmon exports to China. Salmon 
exports to China resumed in 2016 only after Norway 
pledged not to ‘‘support any actions that under-
mine’’ China’s core interests and stated that its own 
actions had harmed ‘‘mutual trust’’. 
(6) In 2012, the PRC blocked banana imports 
from the Philippines on the pretext of SPS issues 
and warned Chinese tourists against visiting the 
Philippines in response to a standoff over disputed 
Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. 
(7) Following the election of Taiwan President 
Tsai Ing-wen in 2016, the PRC responded to Tsai’s 
unwillingness to explicitly endorse the terms of the 
1992 Consensus by curbing the number of mainland 
tourists and students allowed to travel to Taiwan. 
(8) In 2016, the PRC retaliated against Mon-
golia for hosting His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama 
by raising fees on commodity imports from Mon-
golia, creating delays at a major border crossing, 
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and canceling negotiations over a loan to the Mongo-
lian government. 
(9) Following South Korea’s 2016 decision to 
join the United States in deploying a United States 
missile defense system to defend against North Ko-
rea’s missile threat, the PRC took the following ac-
tions that is estimated to have cost South Korea 
$7.5 billion dollars in losses in 2017 alone: 
(A) Restricted South Korean entertain-
ment and other cultural exports from entering 
China. 
(B) Banned the sale of certain South 
Korea household products, including cosmetics, 
high-tech toilet seats, air purifiers, and food. 
(C) Restricted tourism between the two 
countries by ordering travel agencies not to pro-
vide South Korean tour packages and by reject-
ing Korean airlines’ applications to increase 
charter flights between the two countries. 
(D) Targeted the China business of Lotte, 
a South Korean conglomerate, by suspending 
new factories, launching cyberattacks against 
Lotte’s website, and closing significant numbers 
of Lotte Mart stores in China for alleged safety 
violations. 
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(10) After the Government of Australia called 
for an independent inquiry into the origins of the 
SARS–CoV–2 virus in 2020, the PRC retaliated by 
imposing tariffs on Australian wine and barley ex-
ports, placing restrictions on other commodities, and 
threatening to encourage Chinese students to boy-
cott Australian universities. 
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that— 
(1) the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) in-
creasing use of economic coercion against foreign 
governments, companies, organizations, other enti-
ties, and individuals requires that the United States 
better understand these measures in order to devise 
a comprehensive, effective, and multilateral response; 
(2) the private sector is a crucial partner in 
helping the United States Government understand 
the PRC’s coercive economic measures and hold the 
PRC accountable, and that additional business 
transparency would help the United States Govern-
ment and private sector stakeholders conduct early 
assessments of potential pressure points and 
vulnerabilities; and 
(3) PRC coercive economic measures creates 
pressures for the private sector to behave in ways 
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antithetical to United States national interests and 
competitiveness. 
SEC. 4. INTERAGENCY TASK FORCE. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—Not later than 180 days after 
the date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall 
establish an interagency task force to be known as the 
‘‘Countering Economic Coercion Task Force’’ (referred to 
in this section as the ‘‘Task Force’’). 
(b) DUTIES.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Task Force shall— 
(A) oversee the development and imple-
mentation of an integrated United States Gov-
ernment strategy to respond to People’s Repub-
lic of China (PRC) coercive economic measures, 
which shall include— 
(i) systematically monitoring and eval-
uating— 
(I) the costs of such measures on 
United States businesses and overall 
United States economic performance; 
(II) instances in which such 
measures taken against a non-PRC 
entity has benefitted United States 
parties; and 
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(III) the impacts such measures 
have had on United States national 
interests; and 
(ii) facilitating coordination among 
Federal departments and agencies when 
responding to such measures as well as 
proactively deterring such economic coer-
cion; 
(B) consult with United States allies and 
partners on the feasibility and desirability of 
collectively identifying, assessing, and respond-
ing to PRC coercive economic measures, as well 
as actions that could be taken to expand coordi-
nation with the goal of ensuring a consistent, 
coherent, and collective response to such meas-
ures and establishing long-term deterrence to 
such measures; 
(C) effectively engage the United States 
private sector, particularly sectors, groups, or 
other entities that are susceptible to such PRC 
coercive economic measures, on concerns related 
to such measures; and 
(D) develop and implement a process for 
regularly sharing relevant information, includ-
ing classified information to the extent appro-
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