We break down the national security and economic concerns in an explainer video.
Momentum is building on Capitol Hill to stop Chinese government-owned or controlled companies from building U.S. rail cars or buses.
Dozens of members of Congress from both sides of the aisle are cosponsoring legislation called the Transit Infrastructure Vehicle Security Act to prevent taxpayer money from going to these state-owned enterprises (SOEs) for rail or bus contracts. Meanwhile, Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) recently introduced an amendment to ban Chinese SOEs from building new Metro rail cars.
But unless you follow this issue as closely as we do, you might not understand why this is such a big deal. That’s why we made this handy explainer video:
As we note in the video, there are a number of national security concerns raised by allowing companies with ties to China’s government to build U.S. transit. On top of that, China’s ultimate goal is to dominate U.S. transit manufacturing – these companies are severely underbidding for these contracts, in some cases by hundreds of millions of dollars.
As Holmes Norton put it: “China isn’t making these rail cars so cheaply out of the goodness of its heart.”
Please check out the video, share it on social media and tell your members of Congress to support the Transit Infrastructure Vehicle Security Act.