China Investment Curbs Dropped From Must-Pass Defense Bill

Speaker Mike Johnson rejected bipartisan efforts to use a must-pass defense bill to tighten controls on US investment in Chinese technology, tasking several of his chairmen instead with resolving their differences on the matter by early next year, people familiar with the decision said.

The decision is a severe blow to efforts to require firms to notify the government about certain investments in China and other countries of concern. The language, which has bipartisan backing, aligns with an executive order by President Joe Biden to curb spending on high-tech sectors in the world’s second-largest economy.

The so-called outbound investment ...