The Chinese Foreign Ministry Thursday strongly criticized legislation proposed by US Senator Marco Rubio to prevent Huawei from seeking damages in US patent courts, and Chinese experts said Rubio's proposal was ridiculous and totally against the spirit of the law always touted by US politicians, including Rubio himself.
China strongly opposes US abuse of its state power to suppress Chinese companies, and urges the US to stop its wrongdoings and treat those companies fairly, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said at a routine press conference on Thursday.
The US has been praising itself as a country under the rule of law for very long time, and now it unexpectedly has a situation where a US senator is proposing an act to contain foreign companies from defending their legal rights in the US, so it is not surprising that this has shocked people inside and outside the US, Lu said.
"We know there are some US politicians who are trying to crack down on foreign companies by any means, but we didn't expect that these people would dare to play and manipulate laws to serve their purposes. To be honest, this will harm the US image as well as US companies," Lu further said.
China will continue to take necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises, said Lu.
Rubio submitted to the US Congress on Monday an amendment to the "2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020," which calls for forbidding companies in certain US government watch lists, including Huawei, to seek relief under US patent law, such as filing legal proceedings for patent infringement, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
The US always sees itself as a nation subject to the rule of law. However, it is unbelievable to see such a ridiculous move of trying to pass legislation to obstruct other countries' enterprises from protecting their legitimate rights and interests, Lü Xiang, a research fellow on China-US relations at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, told the Global Times on Thursday.
"Congress is unlikely to pass Rubio's legislation as it is ridiculous and totally against the foundation and spirit of the law in the US," said Lü.
Many US web users also expressed their opposition on Twitter and Facebook. "You want China to respect US patents but the US would deny China's patent? Senator Rubio, this is really dumb," said one named "Basel Barakat."
"This amendment undermines the US patent system…we are shooting ourselves in the foot to fight a single private company," said another netizen named "Pierre B."
Rubio is known for his strong anti-China stance. In February, several Republican US senators, including Rubio, asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to invite the regional leader of Taiwan Tsai Ing-wen to speak before a joint session of the US Congress, which was seen as a move to anger Beijing.
Rubio is a member of the Tea Party, which is one of the most right-wing and conservative movements in the US, Tao Wenzhao, a research fellow at the Institute of American Studies of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.
Rubio's interest groups influence his behavior. These groups "kidnapped" US interests and damaged the healthy development of US-China relations for their own benefit, said Tao.
"China should pay attention to the rising protectionism and growing anti-China voice in the US caused by radical acts by people like Rubio," Da Wei, director of the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations' Institute of American Studies in Beijing, told the Global Times on Thursday.
