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 bipartisan Combating PRC Overseas and Unlawful Networked Threats through Enhanced Resilience (COUNTER) Act to 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. The COUNTER Act would 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, the COUNTER Act would: 

• Require an assessment from the Director of National Intelligence analyzing the risk of PRC global basing to U.S and allied power projection and freedom of movement.
• Require a strategy from the State Department and the Department of Defense identifying current or future PRC basing locations, including:

2. • a comprehensive list of U.S. government activity aimed at addressing PRC global basing in each location;
   • an identification of resource or personnel constraints limiting the U.S. response; and
   • an identification of the most effective practices to persuade foreign governments to terminate plans for hosting a PRC base in their territory.

• Establish an interagency task force to counter the PRC’s global basing expansion and prevent new locations.
• Require a report every four years on updates to PRC basing intentions and subsequent updates to U.S. strategy.

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 Australia Virginia-class submarines, a significant portion of which are built in Hampton Roads. Kaine has previously introduced legislation that 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 pass the 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 to safeguard internet freedom in Hong Kong from the PRC and to strengthen and modernize the U.S.-Philippines security partnership to counter Chinese military pressure in the South China Sea.

The COUNTER Act is also cosponsored by U.S. Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI). 

A one-pager on the bill is available here. 

The bill text is available here. 

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