Congress Investigating US VCs Funding Chinese Startups

WebProNews
Congress Investigating US VCs Funding Chinese Startups

The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party is investing US venture capitalist firms that are funding Chinese startups.

The US has been cracking down on China’s tech industry, restricting access to semiconductors, AI, and other advanced tech. The House committee is expanding its focus, looking at VCs who are funding Chinese startups, according to The Wall Street Journal. Lawmakers are concerned that tech funded by US VCs could ultimately be used against US interests.

“We shouldn’t be funding our own destruction,” said the panel’s chairman, Rep. Mike Gallagher, in an interview.

Similarly, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi told WSJ that American investment and expertise should not enable China’s “advancements in the technologies that could undermine our national security or American values.”

The committee sent letters to VCs to question their investments, specifically to GGV and Qualcomm Ventures over their investments in Chinese firms Megvii Technology and SenseTime.

The committee’s work is framed within the scope of the bigger issues between the US and China.

“We may call this a ‘strategic competition,’” said Rep. Gallagher at the committee’s opening hearing. “But this is not a polite tennis match. This is an existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st century, and the most fundamental freedoms are at stake.”

Congress Investigating US VCs Funding Chinese Startups
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