One of Congress’ jobs is to protect the American people. Yet a key Senate committee is standing by as we hand over cutting-edge U.S. artificial intelligence technology to China, undermining national security and enabling the oppression of the Chinese people.
Congress has wisely restricted the sale of advanced chips and AI technology to China, but senators on the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs are failing to close a key loophole: using U.S. cloud computing services to access our technology.
China has been accessing advanced AI chips, the specialized circuits designed to handle complex artificial intelligence tasks ranging from robotics to military simulations, by renting cloud computing services from U.S. corporations, bypassing restrictions on hardware. State-owned Chinese companies use cloud services such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services from American companies to access advanced AI models otherwise unavailable to them.
The Remote Access Security Act has sat in committee since September 2024. Senators on the committee have chosen to chase corporate money rather than protect their constituents. After passing the House, the measure stagnated as tech lobbyists intervened to preserve these loopholes — according to disclosure reports — as said loopholes are lucrative for tech giants like Microsoft. The bill is not currently up for a future vote.
China, a totalitarian state whose stated ambition is to become the dominant world power by 2049, is the United States’ primary geopolitical competitor. Though free trade has many benefits, granting the U.S.’s biggest opponent access to our most advanced technology compromises our national interest.
The AI chips of concern, such as the Nvidia A100, are integral to advanced military simulations, research in models that imitate human intelligence, and surveillance systems. While accessing these chips, China can both sharpen its military capabilities and further its suppression of dissent.
Allowing Chinese companies to rent American cloud computing space comes with economic benefits. But those benefits aren’t worth heightening the threat that China poses to U.S. national security.
American technology is already a key part of China’s Orwellian surveillance system — one they use to quash dissent, persecute religious minorities, and carry out the Uyghur genocide. By renting out these cutting-edge AI systems, U.S. companies are well on their way toward doing the same for China’s military.
We ought to regulate the sale of AI technology and services to foreign actors in the same way we do arms sales: treating the technology as a military asset and considering how it could or will be used by the customer nation as such.
While regulation does impede economic efficiency, the cost of further regulating the transfer of AI technology to China is less than the cost of protecting ourselves from AI-enhanced Chinese surveillance, espionage, and weaponry.
In failing to limit China’s access to the latest American innovations, Congress is empowering a malevolent nation with the ability to undermine the U.S. The Senate’s inaction also endangers other like-minded Western democracies and enables China to more effectively oppress its people.
This isn’t the first loophole Congress has left open. In 2024, China bought more than $20 billion in chip-making equipment from U.S. companies to bolster its own circuit-building industry. If the Senate fails to act quickly, we will continue to strengthen China’s competing interests at our expense.
Tech giant Nvidia argues that cutting off these loopholes will only drive China towards competitors. But, according to the FBI, China steals up to $600 billion in intellectual property from the U.S. each year. Clearly, the U.S. has something China can’t get anywhere else.
Closing these loopholes puts America first. While the U.S. cannot and should not try to, as George W. Bush once said, “advance the cause of freedom everywhere,” we shouldn’t grant our totalitarian competitors technology that directly strengthens their ability to subvert American security and oppress their own people.
Any senator on the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs who cares about our national security should act now to pass the Remote Access Security Act. And President Donald Trump, instead of loosening restrictions on tech in his ongoing negotiations with Beijing, should tighten them.
Daniel Johnson is a sophomore studying philosophy and religion.
