ens. Cramer, Blackburn, Colleagues Introduce Legislation to Examine America's Sister City Partnerships with China

Press Release

U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), a Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) member, joined Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) in introducing the Sister City Transparency Act, legislation to shed light on the 157 sister city partnerships between United States and Chinese communities.

"The Chinese Communist Party regularly exploits its sister city partnerships around the world to aggressively advance its own agenda," said Senator Cramer. "Our bill would give us a better understanding of China's reach into the United States and allow us to address that accordingly."

The Sister City Transparency Act would create a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on sister city partnerships operating within the United States and direct the Comptroller General to conduct a study on such partnerships involving foreign communities in countries with significant public sector corruption. The report would:

Identify the oversight practices United States communities implement to mitigate the risks of foreign espionage and economic coercion within sister city partnerships;
Assess the extent to which foreign communities could use sister city partnerships to conduct malign activities, including academic and industrial espionage; and
Review best practices to ensure transparency regarding sister city partnerships' agreements, activities, and employees.

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