By Karen Freifeld
(Reuters) – President Donald Trump nominated Landon Heid, who served on the staff of the House of Representatives’ Select Committee on China, for a key post in the U.S.-China tech battle.
Heid, a China hawk who helped set technology policy for the congressional committee, is being tapped to be assistant secretary of Commerce for export administration, according to a U.S. Senate filing. As such, he would help design export controls to keep AI chips, the equipment to make them and other technology from China and other countries.
Heid was behind a drumbeat of actions by the committee to combat what it sees as China’s threat to U.S. national security.
Last month, the committee came out in support of a strong global licensing regime to control the development of artificial intelligence just before the Commerce Department published a rule to tighten the U.S. grip on AI chip flows across the globe.
The rule, which is scheduled to take effect in May, could be changed by the Trump administration.
Heid was behind a push last year to restrict business with BGI, WuXi Apptec, WuXi Biologics and other Chinese biotech firms. Though proposed legislation gained momentum in the last Congress, it did not pass.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did Heid.
If confirmed, Heid is expected to report to Jeffrey Kessler, a Washington trade lawyer nominated as under secretary for the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). Reuters first reported that Kessler was under consideration.
Trump also sent several other nominations for posts at Commerce to the Senate. David Rader was tapped to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for industry and analysis. Rader is a senior advisor at the Department of Defense, according to his LinkedIn.
Taylor Jordan was nominated to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for environmental observation and prediction, and David Fogel was selected as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for global markets and director general of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Mark Porter and Franklin Paul)
