House Dems' China competitiveness bill includes immigration provisions critics warn could aid Beijing

House Democrats’ China competitiveness bill includes a number of immigration provisions and categories — policies that critics say do not belong in such a piece of legislation and that could lead to abuse by Chinese nationals.

The America COMPETES Act, is purportedly written to allow America to compete with the Chinese behemoth in the years ahead. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the bill "will supercharge our investment in CHIPS, advance manufacturing at home, strengthen our supply chain, transform our research capacity and advance our competitiveness and leadership abroad, plus many other key provisions."

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President Biden declared in a statement that the legislation will "make our supply chains stronger and reinvigorate the innovation engine of our economy to outcompete China and the rest of the world for decades to come."

However, as part of that effort, the House bill includes a number of immigration measures that its Senate counterpart does not, and that is drawing opposition from Republicans and conservative groups.

Included in the text is a provision giving Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Hong Kong nationals and refugee status for 18 months after the enactment of the bill, and authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to provide special status for up to 5,000 Hong Kong residents deemed to be highly skilled. It also treats Hong Kong as separate from China for the purposes of immigration.

Additionally, the bill includes provisions for a new visa classification — the W visa. That nonimmigrant (or temporary) visa would be for "entrepreneurs," their employees and the family members of their employees.

The visa would be available for those who possess an ownership interest in a startup entity of greater than 10% and who will "play a central and active role in the management or operations of the start-up entity" and if that startup received at least $250,000 in investments or $100,000 in government grants. 

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That would be for an initial three-year period and could be extended. However, those requirements can be waived if DHS determines that the startup "has substantial potential for rapid growth and job creation."

Separately, the startup could bring in up to five employees depending on its size — as well as those employees’ spouses and children. W visas can in turn be upgraded to legal permanent residency.

Finally, the bill also created an unlimited visa category for foreign nationals with a doctoral degree from a U.S. or foreign university in science, technology, education or medicine (STEM) fields.

In addition, a number of amendments — not yet included in the bill — are being proposed that include a special trader visa for South Koreans, a provision to exempt Uyghur refugees from annual refugee caps and a provision to allow STEM students to transition to a green card without needing to leave the U.S.

Conservative and conservative groups have raised concerns about the provisions, including the fact there is no restriction on Chinese nationals using the W visa program — meaning that a Chinese investor could buy an ownership stake in a startup and pick up a visa — as well as an eventual path to a green card.

"As the Biden Administration continues to mass release illegal immigrants across the country, House Democrats’ CONCEDES Act provides a new unlimited green card program for the Chinese Communist Party to exploit," House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy tweeted.

"The Left says the #COMPETESAct is supposed to advance U.S. innovation and compete with China on the global market," Jessica Anderson, Executive Director of Heritage Action, said. "Instead, they are allowing Chinese nationals to essentially buy visas through tech startups — this ONLY advances innovation for the CCP communist regime."

The Republican Study Committee said in a release that the W visa program "would be even less secure than the existing visa programs that are already riddled with fraud." 

"Shockingly, an unlimited number of members of the Chinese Communist Party are eligible to take advantage of the new visa program to carry out their malign activity here in the States," the statement said.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), meanwhile, has been pushing lawmakers to oppose the provisions contained in the legislation. In a statement circulated on Capitol Hill, the group compared the proposed W visa to the controversial EB-5 investor visa — which has been dogged by concerns about abuse by Chinese nationals.

"Congress would be better served finding ways to encourage and build upon American entrepreneurial ventures, rather than establishing another ‘golden visa’ program that degrades American citizenship by relegating it to a dollar amount," the organization said.

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Separately, it waned that the green cards for professors and researchers could tap into a source for potential Chinese espionage — pointing to past university-related prosecutions by the DOJ.

"Not only is this dangerous, it does nothing to assist American-grown STEM talent. Isn’t that the entire point?" the group asked.