As US-China Rivalry Intensifies, China Hires A Dozen Former US Lawmakers As Lobbyists

US media is report­ing that as the rival­ry between Chi­na and the US inten­si­fies, Chi­na has hired 12 for­mer mem­bers of Con­gress to lob­by for the coun­try. Accord­ing to a For­eign Lob­by report:

May 17, 2021 For­mer law­mak­ers Ed Royce, David Vit­ter, and Trent Lott were all known for stand­ing up to Chi­na dur­ing their time in Con­gress. […] Today, all three men share a dif­fer­ent affin­i­ty: All three lob­by for Chi­nese com­pa­nies that have been accused of pos­ing a nation­al secu­ri­ty threat to the Unit­ed States. They are among 12 for­mer mem­bers of Con­gress cur­rent­ly reg­is­tered as for­eign agents for Chi­nese com­pa­nies or lob­by­ists for their US affil­i­ates, accord­ing to a For­eign Lob­by Report review of dis­clo­sures under the For­eign Agents Reg­is­tra­tion Act (FARA) and the Lob­by­ing Dis­clo­sure Act (LDA), which tracks lob­by­ing by domes­tic and pri­vate companies.

Read the rest here.

Accord­ing to the report, the fol­low­ing for­mer US law­mak­ers are reg­is­tered as Chi­na lobbyists:

• For­mer Rep. Ed Royce (R‑Calif.)
• For­mer Sen. David Vet­ter (R‑La.)
• For­mer Rep. Peter Roskam (R‑Ill.)
• For­mer Sen. Trent Lott (R‑Miss.)
• For­mer Sen. John Breaux (D‑La.)
• For­mer Rep. Bar­ton Gor­don (D‑Tenn.)
• For­mer Rep. Jeff Den­ham (R.-Cal.)
• For­mer Rep. Albert Wynn (D‑Md.)
• For­mer Rep. Rod­ney Frel­inghuy­sen (R‑N.J.)
• For­mer Rep. Toby Mof­fett (D‑Conn.)
• For­mer Rep. Jon Chris­tensen (R‑Neb.)
• For­mer Rep. Don Bonker (D‑Wash.)

Past GIOR report­ing on US lob­by­ing efforts by var­i­ous influ­ence actors has included:

• A May report high­light­ing China’s role as top spender on for­eign influ­ence oper­a­tions in the US, with Chi­nese for­eign agent spend­ing sky­rock­et­ing from just over $10 mil­lion in 2016 to near­ly $64 mil­lion in 2020.

• A May report on Qatar’s grow­ing lob­by­ing efforts in the US.

• An April report on an LA busi­ness­man impris­oned over unreg­is­tered lob­by­ing for gov­ern­ments includ­ing Sri Lan­ka, Turkey, and Qatar.