Florida Sen. Rick Scott Pushes Bills To Ban Chinese Military Firms From U.S. Stock Exchanges
Florida Sen. Rick Scott introduced two legislative measures this week targeting Chinese companies tied to Beijing’s military, aiming to restrict their ability to raise money on American stock markets.
The proposed legislation directs the Securities and Exchange Commission to flag and halt trading for firms identified as supporting the Chinese armed forces. Together, the Know Your Sanctioned Securities Act and the Protecting U.S. Investors from Chinese Military Companies Act would create mandatory labels for these assets and set up timelines to remove them from domestic trading floors.
“Communist China’s military companies want to use U.S. markets and exchanges to fund the CCP’s efforts to attack our way of life using dollars from American investors,” Scott said in a statement announcing the move. “We can’t let that happen. Communist China has chosen to be our enemy and it’s time for Congress to act by passing these bills to protect Americans from funding an adversary which wishes to destroy us.”
Under the first measure, the SEC would add a “CMC” modifier to the stock ticker symbols of any company designated as backing China’s military. The agency would also establish a clear administrative process to strip that tag away if a company is formally cleared and removed from government watchlists.
The second bill sets up strict operational rules for securities regulators. If a Chinese firm appears on the government’s Section 1260H military list through two consecutive annual updates, the SEC would have 10 days to suspend trading of that company’s securities indefinitely.
Florida Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL)
The legislation also carves out specific jurisdictional boundaries between federal agencies. If the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control puts an entity on its own Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex list, the SEC must notify Congress within 10 days that Treasury’s sanctions will take precedence. At the same time, the text restricts SEC regulators from expanding list definitions or creating trading rules beyond what the statute explicitly directs.
Industry advocacy groups announced support for the legislative package shortly after its introduction.
“American retirees should never be funding Communist China’s military,” said Jon Toomey, president of the Coalition for a Prosperous America. “Senator Scott’s bills are critical to ensuring investors know what they own and keeping U.S. savings out of the People’s Liberation Army’s hands. CPA salutes Senator Scott for putting American investors first.”
Chris Iacovella, president and chief executive of the American Securities Association, echoed that backing, pointing out existing gaps in current oversight.
“When the Pentagon designates a company as a Chinese military company, that company has no business raising capital from American working families, savers, and retirees,” Iacovella said. “These CCP-controlled firms have traded freely on U.S. exchanges for years despite those designations — that’s not a procedural gap, it’s a strategic failure that Senator Scott’s bills fix.”
Both pieces of legislation now head to committee review for consideration.