SCOOP: Congressional hearing focuses on China's abuses of America's legal system

THE LOWDOWN:

• A Judiciary Committee hearing helmed by Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) exposed how vulnerable America’s legal system is to manipulation, distortion, and subversion from the Chinese Communist Party.

• Emily de La Bruyère, one of the witnesses, is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). During the hearing, she laid out how “Chinese abuse of the U.S. legal system takes offensive and defensive forms.”

• China’s efforts, she noted, include “bids to shape U.S. policy as well as to impose costs on adversaries in U.S. courts.”

• China’s massive investment in this lawfare puts American companies at a disadvantage, even when they are right on the legal merits. “This entire system benefits from Chinese government resourcing,” de La Bruyère said.

A Judiciary Committee hearing helmed by Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) exposed how vulnerable America’s legal system is to manipulation, distortion, and subversion from the Chinese Communist Party.

At a hearing on foreign abuse of U.S. courts, Issa honed in directly on China, a longtime priority for one of the GOP’s leading voices on foreign policy.

“Today, there is no greater threat to America’s economy, national security, or research and development than the Chinese government’s quest to achieve superiority over our country by any means necessary – both legal and illegal,” Issa told the Washington Reporter.

“To put it simply: China is manipulating our courts, rules of litigation, and even stealing what is ours while at the same time availing themselves of the legal and regulatory protections that America created to keep faith with the rule of law,” Issa continued.

“This will not stand,” he added.

Emily de La Bruyère, one of the witnesses, is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). During the hearing, she laid out how “Chinese abuse of the U.S. legal system takes offensive and defensive forms.”

China’s efforts, she noted, include “bids to shape U.S. policy as well as to impose costs on adversaries in U.S. courts.”

“[They feature] evasions of U.S. law as well as influence campaigns meant to ensure that such evasions remain possible,” de La Bruyère said. “Across the board, Beijing’s manipulation benefits from the reality that Chinese entities have the same access to U.S. courts, law firms, and lobbyists as any others.”

“And Beijing’s campaign is fueled by a deliberate Chinese government program that provides the resources and direction necessary to turn the U.S. system against itself,” de La Bruyère continued.

During the hearing, de La Bruyere, along with fellow witnesses Bradford Muller and Julian Ku laid out what one attendee described to the Reporter as “frightening examples of how the CCP uses U.S. courts to delay national security actions, silence critics, access valuable intellectual property, evade sanctions, and abuse trade controls.”

Throughout her testimony, de La Bruyere explained how China leverages the freedoms of America’s legal system to undermine American industries and companies. China’s actions include “the Chinese Embassy in Washington reportedly pressuring U.S. executives to lobby against China-related bills; ByteDance-owned TikTok flooding congressional offices with calls from social media influencers; and, of course, the broader reality that in a world where effectively every Big Law and Big Lobby shop has some dependence on a Chinese customer, all are co-opted by Chinese interests.”

“Beijing has also proven its willingness to use the U.S. legal system to punish those who stand in its way. Beijing does so with strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPP suits, intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense. Beijing also does so with intellectual property (IP) lawsuits that, through discovery, give China access to valuable technology — and, on the flip side, with government funding for IP litigation defense that protects Chinese companies from facing consequences for their theft.”

China’s massive investment in this lawfare puts American companies at a disadvantage, even when they are right on the legal merits. “This entire system benefits from Chinese government resourcing,” de La Bruyère said.

“Both directly through litigation funds and indirectly through general government grants, subsidies, and investment, the Chinese state provides the backing necessary for its agents to outspend and outlast their targets in U.S. courts,” she added.

The Democrats’ witness, University of Pennsylvania professor Jacques deLisle, didn’t have the best showing.

“Attempts by the Democrats’ witness for the hearing…to advocate against changes were undercut by his acknowledgement that Chinese entities can be pressured and influenced by the CCP to do its bidding,” deLisle said.

“Indeed, the continued flow of CCP-linked money into our legal system, just like the reported $105 million dollars that the University of Pennsylvania received from PRC-sources in a mere four years, raises too many risks to be ignored,” he continued.

Following the hearing, China experts told the Reporter that “immediate legislative actions to close gaps in trade law enforcement, combat litigation abuse that is being enabled by the lack of disclosure for litigation funding, and prevent abuse of the U.S. IP system by CCP-backed entities are necessary.”