While the U.S. Senate has adjourned until the week after Election Day, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has brought out  the “American Financial Markets Integrity and Security Act.” Rubio’s office noted that the proposal “would prohibit malign Chinese companies — including the parent, subsidiary, affiliate, or a controlling entity — that are listed on the U.S. Department of Commerce Entity List or the U.S. Department of Defense list of Communist Chinese military companies from accessing U.S. capital markets.”

Rubio introduced the bill on Monday and it has the support of U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind.

“Currently, there are a number of Chinese companies, including over thirty that were identified on lists released in June and August 2020 by the Pentagon, as well as networks of affiliated and subsidiary companies. This includes those companies that have been sanctioned by the U.S. government that are operating in the U.S. capital market system and are involved in the Communist Party’s military, espionage, human rights abuses, ‘Military-Civil Fusion Strategy,’ and the ‘Made in China 2025’ industrial policy,” Rubio’s office noted.

“The Chinese Communist Party’s exploitation of U.S. capital markets is a clear and ongoing risk to U.S. economic and national security that must be addressed,” Rubio said on Tuesday. “Currently, there are a number of Chinese companies operating in U.S. capital markets that are actively engaged in the Communist Party’s military, espionage, human rights abuses, ‘Military-Civil Fusion Strategy,’ and the ‘Made in China 2025’ industrial policy. The American Financial Markets Integrity and Security Act will ban these companies from operating in U.S. capital markets and make clear to the Communist Party that they will no longer be able to exploit our financial system.”

“China doesn’t play by the same rules as American companies and, what’s worse, some of these Chinese companies are using slave labor through religious persecution to get ahead,” Braun said. ”These bad actors should have no role in the American marketplace — that’s why I’m proud to be a cosponsor of Senator Rubio’s legislation that works to end this egregious bad business behavior.”

Rubio pointed to statements and warnings from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) about the problems American regulators encounter when trying to oversee U.S.-listed companies based in China.

The bill was sent to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee at the start of the week. So far, there is no companion measure over in the U.S. House.

Reach Kevin Derby at kevin.derby@floridadaily.com.