House Passes Bills to Revive China Initiative at Justice Department

WASHINGTON—The House has passed a bill to re-establish the China Initiative at the Department of Justice with an updated name, replacing “China” with “CCP”—China’s ruling Chinese Communist Party. Within the DOJ’s national security division, the revived program aims to curb the CCP’s commercial and academic espionage on critical technologies by prosecuting CCP agents who have been active on U.S. soil. In a heated debate on the House floor on Tuesday, Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Congressional Asian and Pacific American Caucus, said the bill could unfairly target Chinese Americans through racial profiling. For reasons similar to Chu’s, the White House has also strongly opposed the bill....