H.R.554 – To deter CCP’s aggression towards Taiwan by Publish Financial report on Accounts of Senior CCP Officials

On January 26th, local time, the official website of the U.S. Congress showed that to deter the CCP’s aggression towards Taiwan, Arkansas Republican Congressman Hill J French sponsored the H.R. 554 Act of the 118th Congress. The bill requires the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury to publish a report on financial institutions and accounts connected to senior officials of the People’s Republic of China, to restrict financial services for certain immediate families of such officials, and for other purposes, including deterring the CCP from its attempted aggression against Taiwan. The bill is supported by Representative Bradley James Sherman, Democrat of California, as a co-sponsor. Observers say the bill is expected to encounter some resistance, but the likelihood of passage is becoming more realistic as the House Republican majority in Congress embarks on a series of efforts, notably the establishment of the Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party on the 14th of this month, which will work to increase the urgency of confronting the CCP, consider economic decoupling as a tool, and increase U.S. hard power and deterrence in the Indo-Pacific region. In addition, since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war, numerous Russian officials, oligarchs and their immediate family members have been subject to severe financial sanctions, and their assets have been confiscated or frozen, demonstrating the power of financial tools against officials of authoritarian regimes.