距离中期选举仅剩一周，众议院现任领导层正在悄然决定即将于1月开始的第120届国会的委员会架构。其中一项决定比大多数决定都更为重要——是否保留美国与中国共产党战略竞争特别委员会。
With only one week remaining before the midterm elections, the current leadership of the House of Representatives is quietly deciding committee structures for the 120th session of Congress which begins in January. One decision will matter more than most — whether to keep the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.
这个特别委员会成立时间不长，最初由前众议院议长凯文·麦卡锡（共和党-加利福尼亚州）创立，已被证明是处理与中国技术转让和安全问题的一个有效且两党合作的载体。
In its short existence, The select committee, originally founded by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), has proven to be an effective and bipartisan vehicle to address technology transfer and security issues with China.
两党共同主席确保该委员会在调查和仅提出建议的授权下运作，并拥有一致或近乎一致报告的良好记录。这是华盛顿罕见的、两党议员都能达成一致的场所。失去这样的国会举措，将移除目前众议院中为数不多的、处理中国问题的功能性两党团体之一。
Co-chairs from the two parties ensure that the committee works under an investigative and recommendation-only mandate and has a healthy track record of unanimous or near-unanimous reports. It is the rare venue in Washington where both sides of the aisle agree. To lose such a congressional initiative would remove one of the only functional bipartisan groups currently in the House that deal with China.
但该特别委员会在下一届国会中的保留绝非理所当然。根据众议院规则，此类特别委员会在每届国会届满时到期；因此，保留该委员会将需要新一届国会的正式授权。该规则在2023年该委员会成立时以及本届国会开始时的续期中均已生效。
But the select committee’s preservation in the next Congress cannot be taken for granted. Per House rules, select committees like this one expire when each congressional session ends; consequently, maintaining this one will require an official mandate in the new Congress. This rule was in effect at its founding in 2023 and its renewal at the start of the current Congress.
这个至关重要的委员会的命运尚不明朗，尤其是如果民主党控制众议院的话。“感觉[民主党领导层]会保留它，但你得去问他们，”首席议员罗·卡纳（民主党-加利福尼亚州）最近对Punchbowl新闻表示。
The fate of this vital committee is unclear, especially if Democrats take control of the House. “There’s a sense that [Democratic leadership] would keep it, but you’d have to ask them,” Ranking Member Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) recently told Punchbowl News.
少数党领袖哈基姆·杰弗里斯（民主党-纽约州）有望在2027年成为众议院议长。他必须回答的第一个问题之一，就是他打算如何处理这个特别委员会。该委员会的存在完全掌握在他手中，但他尚未就此事发表公开评论。
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is poised to become Speaker of the House in 2027. One of the first questions he will have to answer is what he plans to do with this select committee. Its existence rests squarely in his hands, but he has not yet made a public comment on this matter.
如果特设委员会哪怕短暂失效，在人工智能竞赛的关键节点，出口管制立法的势头也将停滞。
If the select committee lapses for even a brief time, momentum on export-control legislation will stall during a critical juncture in the AI race.
立法者们花了数年时间就先进半导体出口管制政策进行辩论，同时努力核实适当安全管控措施的实施情况。当前的担忧是，现行框架仍存在重大执法漏洞，包括一个与开源技术相关的漏洞，例如RISC-V，这是一种最初在伯克利开发的开源芯片架构，使硬件设计师能够大规模制造半导体而无需支付许可费。
Legislators have spent years debating policy over export controls for advanced semiconductors while attempting to verify implementation of proper security controls. The current concern is that the framework in place right now still has significant enforcement gaps, including one loophole related to open-source technology such as RISC-V, an open-source chip architecture, originally developed at Berkeley, which enables hardware designers to build semiconductors at scale without paying licensing fees.
北京利用这一设计，该设计在民用和军事领域均有应用，来加强其获取和开发先进技术的广泛战略。
Beijing has used this design, which has capabilities in both the civilian and military sectors, to bolster its broad strategy to acquire and develop advanced technology.
此事如此紧迫的另一个原因是，国会中有成员反对保留特设委员会。格蕾丝·孟众议员（民主党-纽约州）断言，该委员会助长了反亚裔偏见。其他批评者，包括亚裔美国人促进正义组织等团体，过去曾表示，特设委员会重新引发了歧视性画像的风险。对这些担忧的简单回答是，坚持加强领导层监督，而不是废除。
Another reason this matter is so pressing is that there are members of Congress who oppose retaining the select committee. Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) has asserted that it helps fuel anti-Asian bigotry. Other critics, including groups like Asian Americans Advancing Justice, have said in the past that the select committee revives the risk of profiling. The simple answer to those concerns would be to insist on stronger leadership oversight, not abolition.
两党众议院领导层需要承诺在下一届国会保留特设委员会。他们必须公开做出承诺，并在组织投票之前完成，以便在120届国会第一天重新授权，避免出现失效、筹码或政治博弈，因为随着多数党很可能转向民主党，党派之间的无数争端可能会产生这些问题。
House leadership from both parties needs to make a commitment to keep the select committee in the next Congress. It is imperative that they do so publicly and before organizing votes, so it is reauthorized on the first day of the 120th Congress, avoiding lapse, leverage or political games arising from myriad fights between the parties as the majority likely swings to the Democrats.
随着技术突破的步伐和中国的进步，国会无法将出口管制问题搁置数月并希望一切未来都没问题。这样的决定只会导致我们在人工智能竞赛中浪费领先优势。
With the pace of technology breakthroughs and China’s advancement, Congress can’t afford to put export-control issues on the back burner for a few months and hope everything is still fine down the road. A decision like that will only lead to us squandering our lead in the AI race.
哈桑·泰勒是康涅狄格州参议员约瑟夫·利伯曼的前外交政策顾问。
Hassan Tyler is a former foreign policy adviser for Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman.