© Noah Berger / Reuters
In particular, Washington is concerned about Beijing's interest in artificial intelligence and machine learning, which have raised Chinese capital recently. The technology could bolster China's military capabilities, US officials worry.
The US government considers strengthening the role of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), according to Reuters.
"We're examining CFIUS to look at the long-term health and security of the US economy, given China's predatory practices" in technology, a Trump administration official told Reuters. The official was not authorized to speak publicly.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis called CFIUS "outdated" during the debate on Tuesday. He told a Senate hearing: "It needs to be updated to deal with today's situation."
The secretive CFIUS is headed by the Treasury Department and includes nine permanent members including those from the departments of Defense, Justice, Homeland Security, Commerce, State and Energy.
The No. 2 Republican in the Senate Senator John Cornyn is preparing amendments to the current legislation to give CFIUS more power.
"Artificial intelligence is one of many leading-edge technologies that China seeks and that has potential military applications," Cornyn's aide told Reuters, asking not to be identified.
"These technologies are so new that our export control system has not yet figured out how to cover them, which is part of the reason they are slipping through the gaps in the existing safeguards," the aide said.
During Barack Obama's presidency, CFIUS blocked several Chinese attempts to buy US chip makers.
The image above is of the new Apple campus, nicknamed "the Spaceship."
It is in Cupertino, where I grew up. All the grocery stores in this city are now Oriental ones. The 2010 census denotes the population of the city as 63% Asian (the 1970 census denotes less than 3% Asian).
Not that I care -- but I thought you might like to know, given the gist of the article. The Chinese investments are not just in technology, but in real estate, as well.
But hey, what else are the Chinese supposed to do with all the money we give them in exchange for…well, almost everything we buy?