US Senate passes sweeping bill to address China tech threat

The US Senate voted 68-32 on Tuesday to approve a sweeping package of legislation intended to boost the country’s ability to compete with Chinese technology.

The desire for a hard line in dealings with China is one of the few bipartisan sentiments in the deeply divided US Congress, which is narrowly controlled by President Joe Biden’s fellow Democrats.

The measure authorizes about $ 190 billion for provisions to strengthen US technology and research – and would separately approve spending $ 54 billion to increase US production and research into semiconductors and telecommunications …