WASHINGTON — Henry Kissinger may be welcomed warmly in China, but U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden is unlikely to be anytime soon.

The Oregon Democrat spoke last week in his office on Capitol Hill the day after the Senate approved by voice vote a trade agreement negotiated between the United States and Taiwan, the self-governing island that China regards as a renegade province. The legislation (HR 4004) goes to President Joe Biden after having cleared the House in June, also by a voice vote.

“The Chinese were denouncing it today,” Wyden said.

“It also says a lot about Oregon’s position on the Pacific Rim that an Oregon senator is involved and that we understood this relationship long before the rest of the country.”

About the same time earlier this month, Kissinger visited China and met with top officials, including President Xi Jinping, while relations between the two nations are strained. As national security adviser to President Richard Nixon and secretary of state a half century ago, Kissinger opened the way to U.S. relations with China after a freeze of more than two decades.

Though China is by far Oregon’s largest export market — and Japan, South Korea and Malaysia are among those ahead of it — Taiwan was No. 7 in 2021. It ranked first in semiconductor chips — though Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is a major manufacturer itself — and fourth for Oregon wheat. A trade delegation from Taiwan visited Oregon last year.

Wyden leads the Senate Finance Committee, which handles trade legislation.

It is the first significant legislation affecting the bilateral relationship since 1979, when Congress passed the Taiwan Relations Act. Congress did so after President Jimmy Carter established full diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China and ended them with Taiwan, whose official name is the Republic of China. The 1979 law set up the American Institute in Taiwan, and its counterpart is the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States.

Wyden’s formal statement: “This bill demonstrates our strong bipartisan, bicameral support for Taiwan, gives the agreement Congress’s stamp of approval, and lays out robust requirements on public transparency and congressional consultation for future trade agreements with Taiwan. It’s a win-win that will shore up our economic and strategic partnership with Taiwan and make sure Congress and the American people have a voice and vote when it comes to international trade.”

This agreement sets rules of the road in five areas of trade: Customs administration and trade facilitation, good regulatory practices, services regulation, anti-corruption, and small and medium-sized businesses.

Wyden talks other issues

Wyden’s Capitol Hill office is in the northwest corner of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, opened in 1958. Down one hallway is the Finance Committee staff and hearing room. Down the other hallway is the office of Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo, who is the top Republican on the Finance Committee.

After the interview, Wyden announced that the Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee would take up bipartisan legislation to deal with tax benefits connected with the agreement.

Wyden and Crapo said in a statement:

“It’s an opportunity to help workers and businesses of all sizes get ahead in both the U.S. and Taiwan by addressing double taxation and encouraging more cross-border investment. We look forward to moving this legislation forward in a bipartisan manner.

During a 35-minute interview, Wyden also touched on other legislation:

Artificial intelligence (AI): Though he is among the senators working on legislation, Wyden said it will be more difficult than the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which among other things opened the way for the growth of the internet. Section 230 shields web operators from liability for content they post.

“It was to protect hosts. It wasn’t to protect generated content. But most of AI is about the opportunities to generate content,” he said.

“There are going to be tricky issues here. What about search engines, which are going to be important in posting content? The line between generating content and hosting is blurring. If you do not do it right, you will mess up the concept of search engines. So I think Congress ought to be pretty careful about rushing to judgment with respect to AI.”

Wyden added about the 1996 law: “All these politicians give speeches about personal accountability. We really like the focus on First Amendment rights and we like moderation. We could tell even back then there would be all this filth and horrible stuff. We wanted an opportunity to make sure that people who were going to use these platforms are not going to use excuses to fail to step up when they should. I think the platforms have not done a great job about it.”

PRESS Act: Wyden seeks to shield the confidential sources and materials of news reporters from federal investigators, except in specified instances such as terrorism and direct involvement in or witnessing of a crime. (PRESS is an acronym for Protect Reporters from Exploitative State Spying.) Shield laws are in place in Oregon and 48 other states, but they do not apply to actions by federal agencies. The Supreme Court held in 1972 there is no inherent federal constitutional protection under the First Amendment, but Congress is free to approve one.

The current Justice Department has barred federal use of secret subpoenas to obtain such information, but it is only a rule.

Wyden said the good news is that the House Judiciary Committee has passed a version (HR 4250) by a 23-0 vote on July 19. The bad news? Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, is opposed to it — and Wyden said an individual senator has a lot of leeway to stall action beyond the 60-vote threshold required to end debate and bring bills to a vote.

“We can win a regular vote, but the tools are all about forcing the Senate to spend a week or 10 days,” Wyden said. “The ability to consume a week to 10 days is just an incredibly powerful tool.”

Wyden said Cotton’s objection is that such a bill favors “liberal” media. “But the last time I looked, they all weren’t liberals in the House,” or on the House Judiciary Committee, which is led by Republican Jim Jordan of Ohio, a fierce critic of Biden.

Aid for semiconductor manufacturing: Wyden said the Oregon Legislature has done well in crafting a package in hopes of capturing some of the $52 billion made available in incentives from last year’s CHIPS and Science Act, which is aimed at boosting domestic capacity. (CHIPS is an acronym for Creating Helpful Incentives for Producing Semiconductors.) Most of the more than $250 million in state money is intended to help secure federal aid for manufacturing and research. State lawmakers also approved targeted tax breaks in separate legislation.

Intel has four plants in Hillsboro and Aloha, and an advanced research and development facility opened in 2022.

“My job is to use every ounce of political capital I have as chair of the Finance Committee to try to help our state,” he said. “Let’s do the research, but we should recognize that we must build stuff, too.

“This is a game-changer for Oregon,” he added. “We’ve always been about natural resources and we always will be. But we cannot pass on these technological opportunities. As long as I have the honor of representing Oregon in the U.S. Senate, we are never going to say that natural resources and technological innovation are mutually exclusive. We are going to bust our chops to do both.”