Florida takes the lead in pushing back against China’s technology aggression | Opinion

China has the world’s attention, and not in a good way. Last week, we learned that the coronavirus epidemic began with a leak from a Chinese lab. The week before, China threatened to provide weapons to Russia to support its invasion of Ukraine. Before that, a Chinese spy balloon violated our airspace and sovereignty, crossing the country with impunity.

Meanwhile, China commits genocide against the Uighers, colonizes its neighbors’ territorial seas, oppresses the people of Hong Kong, continues a vast military buildup and threatens war against our allies in Taiwan.

For many Americans, and people across the world, the threat of communist China is now ominously clear — their totalitarian regime is pursuing global supremacy. At this critical point, our nation must pursue a whole-of-government approach to dealing with the China threat, with urgent action at the local, state, and federal levels.

In Florida, Gov. DeSantis has led the way with bold actions to roll back the Chinese regime’s influence and protect the security of our residents. During his first term, Florida banned Confucius Institutes across the state, restricted state funds or pensions from investing in China, blacklisted Chinese state-sponsored companies from state procurements and put forward a legislative agenda to eliminate other risks from communist China.

This year, I am proud to sponsor legislation in Florida to restrict entities and people linked to the Chinese Communist Party and other countries of concern from purchasing lands in our state near military bases or critical infrastructure, accessing Florida residents’ healthcare data, or receiving economic incentives from our state or local governments. With the leadership of House Speaker Paul Renner and Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, lawmakers will pass this legislation, and Florida will continue to serve as a model for the nation.

We’ve seen how China is using tech to export its authoritarian values through surveillance, censorship, and manipulation to control the dissemination of information around the world. We can’t afford to build a future where China has this much power and is in control of technologies that our communities depend on.

To help America lead in this battle, state governments and Congress must advance policies to turbocharge American industrial competitiveness and promote our tech sector to ensure U.S. companies can innovate, succeed, compete with China, and win.

In Florida, Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz Jr. and Chancellor of Colleges Henry Mack have secured a game-changing investment of $250 million from state government for advanced manufacturing workforce development programs, with additional investments in the pipeline, proving that Florida will lead the country in strengthening its industrial base and accelerating innovation in manufacturing, robotics, hard tech and space.

At the federal level, Washington must continue to invest in core technologies to ensure we win the high-tech race for global leadership. Fortunately for Floridians, our leaders understand this threat and are working hard to address it. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio — often outspoken against China — recently called China “the primary strategic adversary of the United States” and called it out for injecting itself into “our infrastructure and our telecommunications infrastructure.”

Florida also has three members of Congress serving on the newly formed bipartisan House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), created to investigate the CCP’s economic, technological and security advancements as it competes with the United States.

This bipartisan committee is a significant step forward in holding China accountable for its years of surveillance, theft, cyberattacks and other nefarious actions. I urge Congress, as well as every state, to follow Florida’s lead and do more to ensure that America stops China from achieving tech supremacy and continues to lead the world in technology and industry.

Rep. David Borrero represents Florida House District 111 which includes Northwest Miami-Dade County.