Kaine Introduces Bipartisan Bill to Counter China's Strategic Placement of Military Bases Around the World

WASHINGTON, D.C.– U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees, joined U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Pete Ricketts (R-NE) in introducing the bipartisanCombating PRC Overseas and Unlawful Networked Threats through Enhanced Resilience (COUNTER) Actto combat the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) attempts to strengthen its global reach by expanding its overseas basing efforts.
“China is rapidly expanding its global footprint, and we need to do more to address the threat this poses to our national security and the security of our allies,”said Senator Kaine. “This bipartisan legislation would help ensure that the U.S. government has a comprehensive strategy to counter China’s establishment of new military bases around the world.”
In recent years, the PRC has significantly increased its efforts to establish an overseas network of military and transportation bases, which would allow the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to project and expand its military power. TheCOUNTER Actwould help to mitigate the threat this poses to the United States and our allies by requiring a comprehensive intelligence assessment of the PRC’s global basing activities, as well as a strategy from the State Department and the Department of Defense to address them. The legislation would also create an interagency task force to implement the strategy and identify proactive measures to counteract both current and future Chinese attempts to add military bases in strategic countries.
Specifically, theCOUNTER Actwould:
Kaine has long supported efforts to counter aggression by the People’s Republic of China, including through the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) partnership, in which the U.S. will sell AustraliaVirginia-class submarines, a significant portion of which are built in Hampton Roads. Kaine has previously introducedlegislationthat aims to expand the U.S.’ toolkit to respond to China’s use of its maritime militia to exert excessive territorial claims, harass U.S. ships and those of our partners in the South China Sea. In April of last year,Kaine helped passthe national security supplemental funding package, which included military assistance funding and resources to replenish stocks given to Taiwan. He has also led the introduction of bipartisan legislation tosafeguard internet freedom in Hong Kongfrom the PRC and tostrengthen and modernizethe U.S.-Philippines security partnership to counter Chinese military pressure in the South China Sea.
TheCOUNTER Actis also cosponsored by U.S. Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI).
A one-pager on the bill is availablehere.
The bill text is availablehere.
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