Rubio Introduces Bill to Deter CCP Influence in Ukraine

If signed into law, the secretary of state would be required to negotiate with the Ukrainian government to establish a mechanism to review investment in Ukraine, particularly from China.
The bill also sets a provision for assistance to help Ukraine perform the investment mechanism, such as providing training, equipment, and consultation from the United States.
Beijing has actively helped Moscow since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This support includes providing critical components and technology that aid Russia’s defense industry, which Western sanctions have impacted. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has also increased its purchases of Russian energy, providing an economic lifeline to Moscow amid global sanctions.​
“A role for China in Ukraine will significantly undermine U.S. interests, Ukraine’s future in Europe, and overall European security,” and “will clear the way for its substantial involvement in Ukraine’s reconstruction,” the senators said at the time.
The senators sounded the alarm that allowing the CCP’s role in the diplomatic settlement in Ukraine would set a precedent for future CCP’s participation in European security issues, potentially undermining security interests that Washington and its allies have built for decades. The move will also help Chinese leader Xi Jinping position himself as a responsible leader to European nations and countries with a neutral stance on the Russian war efforts in Ukraine.
They also warned that the CCP had seen Ukraine as a crucial source of military technology and expertise because Kyiv “inherited roughly one-third of the Soviet Union’s defense-industrial base and 15 percent of Soviet military research and development facilities” after the fall of the Soviet Union. Therefore, if it is allowed to be involved in Ukraine’s diplomatic peace settlement, China would prioritize investing in these strategic sectors.
In addition, the letter raised concerns that the CCP’s significant influence “in post-war Ukraine would also provide it with unparalleled opportunities to collect intelligence on Ukrainian and foreign-supplied military capabilities, as well as steal the intellectual property of Ukrainian companies. These risks cannot be overstated.”
The senators then called on the federal government “to abandon the notion that it can drive a wedge between Moscow and Beijing.” They urged Washington, along with European and Indo-Pacific partners, to plan Ukraine’s reconstruction ahead to prevent the CCP from pursuing its unilateral interests.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on July 30 that Kyiv doesn’t want China to act as a mediator.
“If China wants to, it can force Russia to stop this war,” Zelenskyy told reporters at a school gym in the western town of Rivne.
“I would like it to put pressure on Russia to put an end to this war,” he said.
“Just as the United States is applying pressure, just as the European Union is applying pressure. The more influence a country has, the greater should be its pressure on Russia.”