{"id":1917145,"date":"2023-04-20T10:10:41","date_gmt":"2023-04-20T14:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republican-lawmakers-move-to-protect-america-from-chinese-sister-cities-exploitation\/"},"modified":"2023-04-20T10:12:08","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T14:12:08","slug":"republican-lawmakers-move-to-protect-america-from-chinese-sister-cities-exploitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republican-lawmakers-move-to-protect-america-from-chinese-sister-cities-exploitation\/","title":{"rendered":"Republican Lawmakers Move to Protect America From Chinese \u2018Sister Cities\u2019 Exploitation"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Frepublican-lawmakers-move-to-protect-america-from-chinese-sister-cities-exploitation%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1917145&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"post_content\">\n<div class=\"aplayer_app\" data-source=\"https:\/\/vs1.youmaker.com\/assets\/2023\/0420\/0c2d7af8-1a3a-49ac-bf63-a5a2430717bd\/audio.mp3?length=3631437&#038;duration=303\"><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>Republican lawmakers are calling for an investigation into how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) may be using \u201csister cities\u201d to \u201cpush their geopolitical objectives\u201d and\u00a0spy on the\u00a0United States.<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) introduced the \u201cSister City Transparency Act\u201d alongside Sens. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), and Steve Daines (R-Mont.) on April 19.<\/p>\n<p>A \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/sistercities.org\/about-us\/what-is-a-sister-city-3\/\">sister city<\/a>\u201d is a relationship or long-term partnership\u00a0between two communities in two countries. Such a relationship is\u00a0officially recognized through an agreement between\u00a0the highest elected or appointed officials from both communities.<\/p>\n<p>Under Blackburn\u2019s bill (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackburn.senate.gov\/services\/files\/9D69CB39-C01F-4BC6-AD90-53BA599D962C\">pdf<\/a>), the\u00a0Government Accountable Office (GAO) would be required to make a report evaluating the activities of so-called \u201csister city partnerships\u201d operating in the United States if the foreign communities receive a score of\u00a045 or less on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transparency.org\/en\/cpi\/2019\">Transparency International\u2019s 2019 Corruption Perceptions Index.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Nations that have scored 45 or less on that list include Belarus, a close ally of Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and dozens more.<\/p>\n<h2>Bill Specifics<\/h2>\n<p>According to the bill, the GAO\u2019s report would need to identify the oversight practices that U.S. communities implement to \u201cmitigate the risks of foreign espionage and economic coercion within sister city partnership,\u201d assess\u00a0the extent to which foreign communities could use sister city partnerships to conduct malign activities, including human rights abuses, and academic and industrial espionage, and review best practices to ensure transparency regarding sister city partnerships\u2019 agreements, activities, and employees.<\/p>\n<p>The report would also need to identify the extent to which sister city arrangements involve\u00a0economic arrangements that make U.S.\u00a0communities vulnerable to malign market practices, allow foreign nationals to access local commercial, educational, and political institutions, and how foreign communities could use the partnership to\u00a0realize strategic objectives that are not conducive \u201cto the economic and national security interests\u201d of the United States, among other things.<\/p>\n<p>The report would need to be submitted by the\u00a0Comptroller General to the\u00a0appropriate congressional committees no later than six months after the study into the sister city is initiated.<\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackburn.senate.gov\/2023\/4\/blackburn-exposes-chinese-partnerships-across-usa\">statement,<\/a> the Republican lawmakers said the bill is necessary because while sister cities\u00a0\u201cexist ostensibly to promote cultural exchange and economic development\u201d the CCP has begun to use such partnerships to \u201cachieve geostrategic objectives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSister city partnerships are one of Beijing\u2019s favorite political weapons,\u201d said Blackburn.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAcross the globe, Communist China has exploited these relationships, ostensibly to promote cultural exchange. The truth is that these partnerships are much more sinister<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Republican lawmakers are calling for an investigation into how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) may be using \u201csister cities\u201d to \u201cpush their geopolitical objectives\u201d and\u00a0spy on the\u00a0United States. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) introduced the \u201cSister City Transparency Act\u201d alongside Sens. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":1917146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[5374,4117,5037,8191,3673,5508,3911,5712],"class_list":["post-1917145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times","tag-america","tag-chinese","tag-cities","tag-exploitation","tag-lawmakers","tag-protect","tag-republican","tag-sister"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1917145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1917146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1917145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1917145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1917145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}