“The Chinese Economic Espionage Act is going to be one of the centerpieces of what we do”, Graham told an audience at the Heritage Foundation. “The bill’s aim is to stop them to the extent that they’re abusing our laws – the immigration laws — and making them pay a higher price”.
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Some 46 percent of the US population sees sees China and its growing economic power as a "critical threat" to the United States, a recent Gallup poll revealed.
In recent years, China has come under increasing criticism over its alleged wide-spread theft of intellectual property and economic espionage, with Chinese businesses being accused of stealing trade secrets from foreign companies to incorporate technologies into their own devices and passing counterfeit goods as products of famous brands, among other things.
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The violation of intellectual property rights has, in particular, soured China's relations with the United States, with the issue being among those that prompted US President Donald Trump to unleash a trade war on Beijing.