Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) and a coalition of bipartisan senators introduced legislation intended to help the U.S. create international partnerships on emerging technologies to better compete with China. The Democracy Technology Partnership Act would create an interagency office at the State Department tasked with coordinating partnerships among the U.S. and other democratic countries to promote research and set standards around emerging technologies such as 5G, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and semiconductors.
The measure would establish a $5 billion International Technology Partnership Fund to help support joint research among democratic nations, academia and industries, within those countries. The legislation also calls for strategies to provide alternatives for nations that may be considering buying technology from authoritarian regimes, reports The Hill.
“The Chinese Communist Party is working to surpass the U.S. technologically and economically and to export their technologies globally,” Warner said Thursday. “In order to compete and counter the expansion of Chinese dominance in critical technology sectors, we need to create a strategy that leverages the power of American partnerships to protect and advance our technological edge.”
“This bipartisan legislation will help foster partnerships among the U.S. and like-minded democratic countries to better protect and compete against China in critical emerging technologies while helping set global rules, standards, and protocols for the market,” he added, notes The Hill.
Specifically, the interagency office would be responsible for:
- Creating a technology-based partnership of democratic countries to develop harmonized technology governance regimes and to fill gaps on specific technologies;
- Identifying existing, and when needed, new multilateral mechanisms to advance the objectives of the Technology Partnership;
- Coordinating with such countries regarding shared technology strategies; and
- Developing strategies to provide alternatives to countries who are at risk of acquiring technologies from authoritarian regimes.
The criteria for participation in the global partnership – as laid out by the legislation – requires that the country be a democratic national government with a strong commitment to democratic values. It should also have an economy with advanced technology sectors, and have a demonstrated record of interest or expressed interest in international cooperation and coordination with the U.S. on defense and intelligence issues.
Other sponsors of the legislation include Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY), Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX), Todd Young (R-IN), Michael Bennet (D-CO), and Ben Sasse (R-NE).
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