GOP senators press Obama to sanction China

Four Republican senators on Tuesday urged President Obama to take a hard line with China over its state-sponsored hacking and economic protectionism during President Xi Jinping’s upcoming state visit.

“China’s behavior in cyberspace has emerged as a serious threat to U.S national and economic security and we urge you to make this issue a top priority during President Xi’s visit,” said the letter, signed by Republican Sens. Cory Gardner (Colo.), John Barrasso (Wyo.), Johnny Isakson (Ga.) and David Perdue (Ga.).

{mosads}The letter is part of growing pressure from the right to respond to Beijing for its alleged pilfering of U.S. intellectual property.

“We are concerned that well-documented state-sponsored or state-endorsed [People’s Republic of China] activities have not been met with an appropriate response from the United States,” the senators said.

The White House had been considering slapping China with economic sanctions for hacking ahead of Xi’s visit but recently said it would delay the issue until at least after the meetings this week.

That decision has frustrated congressional Republicans. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), who chairs the House Armed Services subcommittee on emerging threats, and Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) introduced a resolution admonishing the president for holding off on sanctions.

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said he was also considering legislation that would detail possible sanctions against China.

The group of Republicans behind the letter also pressed Obama to punish China for its alleged hacking into U.S. computers systems.

“We urge you to penalize all entities that your administration considers to be responsible for national security or commercial cyber-enabled activities directed against our nation,” the letter said.

Speaking for U.S. businesses, the four lawmakers also asked Obama to raise with Xi a series of Chinese regulations that critics have said are thinly veiled protectionism.

The White House has publicly rebuked a number of these pending rules directly to top Beijing officials, including a set of banking technology regulations that would limit the Chinese financial sector’s ability to use foreign technology.

“While many American firms still look to China as a top priority to grow and succeed in the global marketplace, without tangible economic and legal reforms within [China], we fear these opportunities will be more limited in the future and seriously jeopardize the bilateral commercial relations between our nations,” the senators said.

Xi arrives in Washington Thursday and is scheduled to give a joint press conference with Obama on Friday.