The Senate Armed Services Committee has agreed to defense authorization bill that would require the Defense Department's annual report on Chinese military strength include a new assessment of Beijing's overseas investments related to national security objectives. Senior committee staffers told reporters China, and to a lesser extend Russia, is the animating force behind many of the bill's measures, specifically those aimed at blocking investments that could compromise the U.S. defense industrial base. Along with modifying the annual report on China, the bill would require the defense secretary to "enhance the assessment and mitigation of risks related to foreign ownership, control, or influence within the defense industrial base," according to a summary of the legislation released by the committee. The would also require DOD to develop a list of academic institutions in China and Russia known to be associated with defense programs in those counties "in order to identify any university heavily engaged in military research as part of an effort to protect American national security academic researchers from undue influence and other security threats," the summary states.
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