Here’s what you need to know about China today:

Top story: A new U.S. House committee is aimed at competing with China, and the harsh rhetoric emerging from the group’s first hearing drew sharp criticism from some prominent figures in Washington. Eduardo Jaramillo has this Q&A with Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the new committee.

TikTok filed a lawsuit against the state of Montana for its ban on the Bytedance-owned social media app, arguing the law violates the constitutional right to free speech and is based on “unfounded speculation” that the Chinese government could access users’ data. The ban, which was signed on Wednesday and would come into effect on January 1, marks the first U.S. state to bar the popular short-video sharing service. But TikTok is mostly owned by Americans, and despite testimonies from the company’s CEO, the app is struggling to convince U.S. lawmakers that it is American enough.

Meanwhile, four Chinese citizens are suing Florida over a new law that would bar them and the citizens of several other countries from owning homes and land in some parts of the state. The law prohibits citizens of China, Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Iran, Russia, and North Korea from purchasing properties within 10 miles of military installations and other “critical infrastructure,” as well as agricultural land. But sales to Chinese citizens face the harshest penalties, and the lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), claims that the ban “will codify and expand housing discrimination against people of Asian descent” and “cast an undue burden of suspicion on anyone seeking to buy property whose name sounds remotely Asian, Russian, Iranian, Cuban, Venezuelan, or Syrian.”

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin is in China for a two-day visit, in another sign of growing ties between the two countries despite Moscow’s international isolation over its war in Ukraine. Mishustin, who has been sanctioned by a slew of Western nations, is expected to meet with Chinese President Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 and Premier Lǐ Qiáng 李强 in Beijing to discuss greater cooperation in energy, infrastructure, and agriculture. His trip will follow a meeting on Monday between the two nations’ top security chiefs, as Beijing tries to balance ties between Moscow and Kyiv after sending a special envoy to Ukraine and several European countries to act as a middleman.

Sri Lanka has its eye on half a million Chinese tourists in 2024 to help alleviate its massive debts. The South Asian country’s Tourism Minister Harin Fernandoy said on Monday in Beijing that if each Chinese tourist spent $5,000, that amount could raise a figure comparable to the long awaited $3 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in March. Fernandoy has already presented plans for free tourist visas for Chinese travelers until November, and is talking with Chinese airlines to boost the number of flights to Sri Lanka.

Here’s what you need to know about China today:

Top story: A new U.S. House committee is aimed at competing with China, and the harsh rhetoric emerging from the group’s first hearing drew sharp criticism from some prominent figures in Washington. Eduardo Jaramillo has this Q&A with Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the new committee.

TikTok filed a lawsuit against the state of Montana for its ban on the Bytedance-owned social media app, arguing the law violates the constitutional right to free speech and is based on “unfounded speculation” that the Chinese government could access users’ data. The ban, which was signed on Wednesday and would come into effect on January 1, marks the first U.S. state to bar the popular short-video sharing service. But TikTok is mostly owned by Americans, and despite testimonies from the company’s CEO, the app is struggling to convince U.S. lawmakers that it is American enough.

Meanwhile, four Chinese citizens are suing Florida over a new law that would bar them and the citizens of several other countries from owning homes and land in some parts of the state. The law prohibits citizens of China, Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Iran, Russia, and North Korea from purchasing properties within 10 miles of military installations and other “critical infrastructure,” as well as agricultural land. But sales to Chinese citizens face the harshest penalties, and the lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), claims that the ban “will codify and expand housing discrimination against people of Asian descent” and “cast an undue burden of suspicion on anyone seeking to buy property whose name sounds remotely Asian, Russian, Iranian, Cuban, Venezuelan, or Syrian.”

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin is in China for a two-day visit, in another sign of growing ties between the two countries despite Moscow’s international isolation over its war in Ukraine. Mishustin, who has been sanctioned by a slew of Western nations, is expected to meet with Chinese President Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 and Premier Lǐ Qiáng 李强 in Beijing to discuss greater cooperation in energy, infrastructure, and agriculture. His trip will follow a meeting on Monday between the two nations’ top security chiefs, as Beijing tries to balance ties between Moscow and Kyiv after sending a special envoy to Ukraine and several European countries to act as a middleman.

Sri Lanka has its eye on half a million Chinese tourists in 2024 to help alleviate its massive debts. The South Asian country’s Tourism Minister Harin Fernandoy said on Monday in Beijing that if each Chinese tourist spent $5,000, that amount could raise a figure comparable to the long awaited $3 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in March. Fernandoy has already presented plans for free tourist visas for Chinese travelers until November, and is talking with Chinese airlines to boost the number of flights to Sri Lanka.