Sponsor
Joshua David Hawley
Senator · R-MO
Senator · R-MO
The bill strengthens U.S. national-security protections by restricting transfers, investment, and collaboration that could aid PRC military or surveillance AI, but does so at the cost of significant economic disruption, higher compliance burdens, and legal risks that may chill research, commercial ties, and due-process protections.
U.S. national security and taxpayers are more protected because the bill restricts transfers, holdings, and assistance that could enable PRC military or surveillance AI, reducing the risk that U.S. technology or capital aids adversarial uses.
U.S. investors and financial institutions gain a clear rule to identify and divest exposure to Chinese AI firms tied to military-civil fusion or abuse, reducing future investment risk from those entities.
Tech companies, developers, and legal teams get clearer statutory definitions and harmonized IP/export-control terms for AI components and related rights, lowering regulatory uncertainty for compliance, contracts, and cross-border licensing.
U.S. investors, asset managers, and taxpayers may face significant portfolio losses and market disruption because the bill requires divestment or bans on holdings and loans to designated Chinese AI firms.
Companies, small businesses, and consumers could see higher costs and disrupted supply chains because broad export controls and bans on Chinese AI components and IP can slow transactions and reduce access to inputs and tools.
Scientists, university researchers, and academic collaborations are likely to be chilled because criminal liability and immigration consequences for certain PRC-linked collaborations create fear of prosecution and career disruption.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Bans specified AI/GAI imports from China, bars exports/transfers to China, criminalizes certain PRC‑directed AI R&D, and forbids investments in named Chinese entities.
Official title: Amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit United States persons from advancing artificial intelligence capabilities within the People's Republic of China, and for other purposes.
Introduced January 29, 2025 by Joshua David Hawley · Last progress January 29, 2025
Prohibits wide categories of AI and generative-AI technology flows between the United States and the People’s Republic of China and criminalizes certain R&D done on behalf of the PRC. It bars importation of AI/GAI products from China and bars exports/reexports and in‑country transfers to China after a 180‑day transition; it creates a new federal crime for doing certain AI research for the PRC and adds immigration consequences for that offense; and, starting one year after enactment, it forbids U.S. persons from holding or lending to specified Chinese “entities of concern” tied to AI R&D, military‑civil fusion, surveillance, or human‑rights abuses, with penalties and executive authority (IEEPA) to enforce the restrictions.