II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 777
To require the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State to monitor
efforts by the People’s Republic of China to build or buy strategic
foreign ports, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY27, 2025
Mr. B
UDD(for himself, Mr. KELLY, and Mr. SCOTTof Florida) introduced
the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee
on Foreign Relations
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of
State to monitor efforts by the People’s Republic of
China to build or buy strategic foreign ports, and for
other purposes.
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 ‘‘Strategic Ports Re-4
porting Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. MAPPING AND STRATEGY REQUIRED. 1
(a) M
APPING OFGLOBALPORTS.—The Secretary of 2
State, in coordination with the Secretary of Defense, 3
shall— 4
(1) develop an updated, global mapping of for-5
eign and domestic ports identified to be of impor-6
tance to the United States, because of a capability 7
to provide military, diplomatic, economic, or resource 8
exploration superiority; and 9
(2) identify any efforts by the Government of 10
the People’s Republic of China (in this Act referred 11
to as the ‘‘PRC’’) or other PRC entities to build, 12
buy, or otherwise control, directly or indirectly, such 13
ports. 14
(b) S
UBMISSION OFMAP.—The Secretary of State, 15
in coordination with the Secretary of Defense, shall submit 16
the mapping developed pursuant to subsection (a) to the 17
appropriate congressional committees. Such submission 18
shall be in unclassified form, but may include a classified 19
annex. 20
SEC. 3. DEPARTMENT OF STATE AND DEPARTMENT OF DE-21
FENSE STUDY AND REPORT ON STRATEGIC 22
PORTS. 23
(a) S
TUDYREQUIRED.—The Secretary of State, in 24
coordination with the Secretary of Defense, shall conduct 25
a study of— 26
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(1) strategic ports; 1
(2) the reasons such ports are of interest to the 2
United States; 3
(3) the activities and plans of the Government 4
of the PRC to expand its control over strategic ports 5
outside of the PRC; 6
(4) the public and private actors, such as China 7
Ocean Shipping Company, that are executing and 8
supporting the activities and plans of the Govern-9
ment of the PRC to expand its control over strategic 10
ports outside of the PRC; 11
(5) the activities and plans of the Government 12
of the PRC to expand its control over maritime lo-13
gistics by promoting products, such as LOGINK, 14
and setting industry standards outside the PRC; 15
(6) how the control by the Government of the 16
PRC over strategic ports outside of the PRC could 17
harm the national security or economic interests of 18
the United States and allies and partners of the 19
United States; and 20
(7) measures the United States Government 21
could take to ensure open access and security for 22
strategic ports and offer alternatives to PRC invest-23
ments or stakes in strategic ports. 24
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(b) CONDUCT OFSTUDY.—The Secretary of State 1
and the Secretary of Defense may enter into an arrange-2
ment with a federally funded research and development 3
center under which the center shall conduct the study re-4
quired under subsection (a). 5
(c) R
EPORT.— 6
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than one year 7
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec-8
retary of State, in coordination with the Secretary of 9
Defense, shall submit to the appropriate congres-10
sional committees a report on the findings of the 11
study conducted under subsection (a). 12
(2) E
LEMENTS.—The report required by para-13
graph (1) shall include— 14
(A) a detailed list of all known strategic 15
ports operated, controlled, or owned, directly or 16
indirectly, by the PRC or by a foreign person 17
of the PRC, and an assessment of the national 18
security and economic interests relevant to each 19
such port; 20
(B) a detailed list of all known strategic 21
ports operated, controlled, or owned, directly or 22
indirectly, by the United States or United 23
States persons and an assessment of the na-24
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tional security and economic interests relevant 1
to each such port; 2
(C) an assessment of vulnerabilities of— 3
(i) ports operated, controlled, or 4
owned, directly or indirectly, by the United 5
States; and 6
(ii) strategic ports; 7
(D) an analysis of the activities and ac-8
tions of the Government of the PRC to gain 9
control or ownership over strategic ports, in-10
cluding promoting products, such as LOGINK, 11
and setting industry standards; 12
(E) an assessment of how the Government 13
of the PRC plans to expand its control over 14
strategic ports outside of the PRC; 15
(F) a suggested strategy, developed in con-16
sultation with the heads of the relevant United 17
States Government offices, that suggests 18
courses of action to secure trusted investment 19
and ownership of strategic ports and maritime 20
infrastructure, protect such ports and infra-21
structure from PRC control, and ensure open 22
access and security for such ports, that in-23
cludes— 24
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(i) a list of relevant existing authori-1
ties that can be used to carry out the 2
strategy; 3
(ii) a list of any additional authorities 4
necessary to carry out the strategy; 5
(iii) an assessment of products owned 6
by the Government of the PRC or by an 7
entity headquartered in the PRC that are 8
used in connection with strategic ports or 9
maritime infrastructure; 10
(iv) an assessment of the costs to— 11
(I) secure such trusted invest-12
ment and ownership; 13
(II) replace products owned by 14
the Government of the PRC or an en-15
tity headquartered in the PRC that 16
are used in connection with such 17
ports; and 18
(III) enhance transparency 19
around the negative impacts of PRC 20
control over strategic ports; and 21
(v) a list of funding sources to secure 22
trusted investment and ownership of stra-23
tegic ports, which shall include— 24
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(I) an identification of private 1
funding sources; and 2
(II) an identification of public 3
funding sources, including loans, loan 4
guarantees, and tax incentives; 5
(G) a suggested strategy for Federal agen-6
cies to maintain an up-to-date list of strategic 7
ports; and 8
(H) an assessment of any national security 9
threat posed by such investments or activities to 10
United States diplomatic and defense personnel 11
and facilities in the vicinity of such ports, in-12
cluding through cyber threats, electronically en-13
abled espionage, or other means. 14
(3) F
ORM OF REPORT.—The report required by 15
paragraph (1) shall be submitted in unclassified 16
form, but may include a classified annex. 17
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 18
In this Act: 19
(1) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -20
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-21
mittees’’ means— 22
(A) the Committee on Transportation and 23
Infrastructure, the Committee on Energy and 24
Commerce, the Committee on Armed Services, 25
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the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the Per-1
manent Select Committee on Intelligence of the 2
House of Representatives; and 3
(B) the Committee on Commerce, Science, 4
and Transportation, the Committee on Armed 5
Services, the Committee on Foreign Relations, 6
and the Select Committee on Intelligence of the 7
Senate. 8
(2) R
ELEVANT UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT 9
OFFICES.—The term ‘‘relevant United States Gov-10
ernment offices’’ means— 11
(A) the Unified Combatant Commands; 12
(B) the Office of the Secretary of Defense; 13
(C) the Office of the Secretary of State; 14
(D) the United States International Devel-15
opment Finance Corporation; 16
(E) the Office of the Director of National 17
Intelligence; and 18
(F) the Maritime Administration of the 19
Department of Transportation. 20
(3) S
TRATEGIC PORT.—The term ‘‘strategic 21
port’’ means an international port or waterway that 22
the heads of the relevant United States Government 23
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offices determine is critical to the national security 1
or economic prosperity of the United States. 2
Æ
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