II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1011
To establish the position of Country China Officer in the Department of
State to monitor and counter financing projects around the world that
are backed by the People’s Republic of China.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH12, 2025
Mr. L
ANKFORDintroduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
A BILL
To establish the position of Country China Officer in the
Department of State to monitor and counter financing
projects around the world that are backed by the Peo-
ple’s Republic of China.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Belt and Road Over-4
sight Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. COUNTRY CHINA OFFICER. 6
(a) D
ESIGNATION.—Not later than 60 days after the 7
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State 8
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shall direct all Chiefs of Mission to designate 1 Foreign 1
Service Officer in a United States embassy or other diplo-2
matic post in each country with whom the United States 3
has diplomatic relations as Country China Officer. 4
(b) D
UTIES.—Each Country China Officer shall mon-5
itor and report on the activity of the People’s Republic 6
of China in his or her country of responsibility, including 7
capital investment in critical infrastructure and other 8
projects associated with the People’s Republic of China, 9
including the Belt and Road Initiative. 10
(c) S
UNSET.—The requirement to designate Country 11
China Officers under subsection (a) shall expire on the 12
date that is 10 years after the date of the enactment of 13
this Act. 14
SEC. 3. COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF BELT AND ROAD INI-15
TIATIVE PROJECTS. 16
(a) R
EPORT.—Not later than 60 days after the date 17
of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall 18
direct all United States embassies, working through the 19
designated Country China Officer, to prepare a report that 20
details assets within their respective country of operation 21
that are controlled or financed by the Government of the 22
People’s Republic of China or a state-owned enterprise in 23
the People’s Republic of China. 24
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(b) CONTENTS.—Each report required under sub-1
section (a) shall include— 2
(1) an assessment of the respective country’s 3
debt obligations to the People’s Republic of China; 4
(2) a list of known infrastructure projects in 5
the respective country that are financed from capital 6
provided by— 7
(A) the banking system of the People’s Re-8
public of China, including— 9
(i) policy banks, including— 10
(I) the China Development Bank; 11
(II) the Export-Import Bank of 12
China; and 13
(III) the Agricultural Develop-14
ment Bank of China; 15
(ii) state-owned commercial banks, in-16
cluding— 17
(I) the Industrial and Commer-18
cial Bank of China; 19
(II) the Agricultural Bank of 20
China; 21
(III) the China Construction 22
Bank; 23
(IV) the Bank of Communica-24
tions Limited; and 25
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(V) the Bank of China; 1
(iii) sovereign wealth funds, includ-2
ing— 3
(I) the China Investment Cor-4
poration; 5
(II) China Life Insurance Com-6
pany; 7
(III) the China National Social 8
Security Fund; and 9
(IV) the Silk Road Fund; 10
(iv) urban commercial banks; and 11
(v) rural financial institutions; 12
(B) international financing institutions, in-13
cluding— 14
(i) the Asian Infrastructure Invest-15
ment Bank; and 16
(ii) the New Development Bank; and 17
(C) any other financial institution or entity 18
otherwise controlled, overseen, or managed by 19
the Government of the People’s Republic of 20
China; 21
(3) the identification of the infrastructure 22
projects referred to in paragraph (2) that are 23
projects under the Belt and Road Initiative; 24
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(4) an assessment of projects that have caused 1
the country to incur significant debt that has the po-2
tential to harm its economic prosperity and national 3
sovereignty; 4
(5) a list of the known or speculated collateral 5
listed by the respective country for the debts in-6
curred by Belt and Road Initiative projects referred 7
to in paragraph (1); 8
(6) a list of the known assets owned by the 9
Government of the People’s Republic of China or 10
state-owned enterprises in the People’s Republic of 11
China, including telecommunications and critical in-12
frastructure; and 13
(7) a list of known activities at research institu-14
tions or institutions of higher education controlled or 15
financed by the Government of the People’s Republic 16
of China or state-owned enterprises in the People’s 17
Republic of China. 18
(c) S
UBMISSION ANDDISTRIBUTION OFREPORT.— 19
(1) I
NITIAL SUBMISSION.—Not later than 1 20
year after the date on which the Secretary of State 21
issues the directive described in subsection (a), the 22
Chief of Mission in each country shall submit the re-23
port required under subsection (a) to the Under Sec-24
retary of State for Political Affairs. 25
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(2) DISTRIBUTION.—The Under Secretary of 1
State for Political Affairs shall prepare and dis-2
tribute a report that includes all of the information 3
from the individual country reports received pursu-4
ant to paragraph (1) to— 5
(A) the heads of other bureaus and agen-6
cies of the Department of State, as appropriate; 7
(B) the United States International Devel-8
opment Finance Corporation; 9
(C) the Committee on Foreign Relations of 10
the Senate; 11
(D) the Committee on Armed Services of 12
the Senate; 13
(E) the Select Committee on Intelligence 14
of the Senate; 15
(F) the Committee on Finance of the Sen-16
ate; 17
(G) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of 18
the House of Representatives; 19
(H) the Committee on Armed Services of 20
the House of Representatives; 21
(I) the Permanent Select Committee on In-22
telligence of the House of Representatives; and 23
(J) the Committee on Ways and Means of 24
the House of Representatives. 25
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SEC. 4. NOTIFICATION OF FUTURE BELT AND ROAD INITIA-1
TIVE PROJECTS. 2
After the preparation and submission of the reports 3
required under section 3(a), the Secretary of State shall 4
require the respective embassy and the China Desk at the 5
Department of State to inform the Under Secretary of 6
State for Political Affairs of any project described in sec-7
tion 3(b)(2) not later than 30 days after the date on which 8
the Country China Officer is informed of such project. 9
SEC. 5. ANNUAL COMPREHENSIVE REPORT OF BELT AND 10
ROAD INITIATIVE PROJECTS. 11
During the 10-year period beginning on the date of 12
the enactment of this Act, the Under Secretary of State 13
for Political Affairs shall submit an annual report to Con-14
gress that— 15
(1) contains all findings relating to projects 16
controlled or financed by the Government of the 17
People’s Republic of China or state-owned enter-18
prises in the People’s Republic of China submitted 19
by Country China Officers through the process de-20
scribed in sections 3 and 4 during the 12-month re-21
porting period; and 22
(2) includes updated findings and analyses re-23
lated to paragraphs (3), (4), and (5) of section 3(b). 24
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SEC. 6. ANNUAL STRATEGY TO COUNTER PRC INFLUENCE. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Country China Officer at 2
each respective embassy, in consultation with the Chief of 3
Mission for the respective country, shall develop a com-4
prehensive, country-specific strategy to counter the influ-5
ence of the People’s Republic of China, including a plan 6
to counter anti-American messaging by the People’s Re-7
public of China, within their country of responsibility. 8
(b) U
SE OFSTRATEGY.—The strategy developed pur-9
suant to subsection (a) shall be used to equip all personnel 10
across all embassies, consulates, and other diplomatic 11
posts in the respective country of responsibility with the 12
tools needed to effectively counter the influence of the Peo-13
ple’s Republic of China in their respective context and 14
country of responsibility. 15
(c) S
UBMISSION.—During the 10-year period begin-16
ning on the date of the enactment of this Act, each Chief 17
of Mission shall submit an annual report to the Under 18
Secretary of State for Political Affairs that— 19
(1) describes the implementation of the strategy 20
developed pursuant to subsection (a) during the re-21
porting period; and 22
(2) assesses specific challenges and opportuni-23
ties relating to the People’s Republic of China in the 24
respective country of responsibility. 25
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(d) DISTRIBUTION.—The Under Secretary of State 1
for Political Affairs shall submit an annual report that 2
summarizes the information contained in the reports re-3
ceived pursuant to subsection (c) to the heads of the bu-4
reaus of the Department of State, as appropriate. 5
(e) E
XCLUSIONS.—Countries with limited or no in-6
vestments by the Government of the People’s Republic of 7
China shall be excluded from the strategy developed pur-8
suant to subsection (a). 9
SEC. 7. PROCUREMENT PROJECTIONS. 10
(a) A
NNUALREPORT.—During the 10-year period 11
beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, the 12
Country China Officer at each respective embassy, in con-13
sultation with other embassy personnel, shall submit an 14
annual report to the Under Secretary of State for Political 15
Affairs that— 16
(1) describes the procurement and infrastruc-17
ture needs of their respective country of responsi-18
bility; and 19
(2) assesses specific challenges and opportuni-20
ties relating to potential financing by the People’s 21
Republic of China for procurement and infrastruc-22
ture projects to meet such needs. 23
(b) D
ISTRIBUTION.—The Under Secretary of State 24
for Political Affairs shall submit an annual report summa-25
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rizing the information contained in the reports received 1
pursuant to subsection (a) to— 2
(1) the heads of the bureaus of the Department 3
of State, as appropriate; and 4
(2) other instrumentalities of the Federal Gov-5
ernment, including the United States International 6
Development Finance Corporation. 7
SEC. 8. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING DEVELOPMENT 8
FINANCE. 9
It is the sense of Congress that, as the People’s Re-10
public of China’s influence grows through infrastructure 11
(particularly infrastructure that can easily be shifted from 12
economic to military uses), the United States Inter-13
national Development Finance Corporation should 14
prioritize providing alternative financing opportunities 15
that increase port and air field capacity of countries 16
that— 17
(1) meet the investment criteria set forth in 18
title II of the BUILD Act of 2018 (division F of 19
Public Law 115–254; 22 U.S.C. 9621 et seq.); and 20
(2) are targets of the predatory infrastructure 21
development scheme of the People’s Republic of 22
China commonly known as the Belt and Road Initia-23
tive. 24
Æ
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