N.C. Congressman Introduces Bill to Screen Chinese Purchases of American Aviation Companies

Rep. Pat Harrigan, R-N.C., is introducing a bill called the General Aviation Protection Act of 2026, or GAP Act, aimed at blocking Chinese entities from buying American general aviation companies. Harrigan announced the bill exclusively to the Daily Signal.

The bill targets a specific gap in existing law. General aviation, meaning small aircraft, private planes, flight schools, and related manufacturing, has largely escaped the kind of foreign-investment scrutiny applied to major defense contractors.

Harrigan's chief example is Cirrus Aircraft, a Minnesota-based manufacturer of single-engine planes popular at regional airports. Cirrus has been owned since 2011 by China's Aviation Industry Corp., known as AVIC, a state-controlled conglomerate that also builds fighter jets and drones for the People's Liberation Army, the military arm of the Chinese Communist Party.

"For two decades, Chinese entities have been quietly buying up American aviation companies, absorbing our engineers, our manufacturing know-how, and our FAA certifications the whole time, and Washington never built a system to catch it," Harrigan told the Daily Signal. "This bill is that system."

What the Bill Would Actually Do

The GAP Act would prohibit the sale of any aviation company to buyers linked to a government-designated foreign adversary, a category that currently includes China under existing U.S. policy.

It would also require the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, known as CFIUS, to review any investment by a country of concern in general aviation. That review would cover aircraft, engine, and helicopter manufacturers, avionics firms, and FAA-certified flight schools located near military installations.

Reviewers would specifically look for signs of Chinese military-civil fusion, a strategy in which Beijing blends civilian and military research and manufacturing to advance PLA capabilities using commercial cover. The bill would also flag training programs involving foreign nationals and any dual-use military application of the technology involved.

Beyond company sales, the bill extends to real estate, requiring review of general aviation airports, fixed-base operators, flight schools, maintenance hangars, and related facilities, with extra scrutiny for anything near a military base.

Harrigan, a combat-decorated Green Beret veteran, sits on the House Armed Services Committee and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. These positions give him direct visibility into both military readiness and the industrial base that supports it.

The Case for the Bill

The underlying concern is straightforward. AVIC's ownership of Cirrus since 2011 is a matter of public record. AVIC builds military hardware for the PLA. A subsidiary building general aviation planes, engines, and avionics in the U.S. means Chinese state-linked engineers and executives have had over a decade of exposure to American manufacturing processes, FAA certification standards, and potentially pilot training infrastructure that touches military-adjacent skill sets.

CFIUS already reviews foreign investment in sectors deemed sensitive to national security, but general aviation has historically fallen outside its most aggressive scrutiny compared to defense primes or critical infrastructure. Harrigan's bill would close that specific gap by making the review mandatory rather than discretionary for this sector.

What's Unproven

What isn't established in available reporting is any documented instance of Cirrus, AVIC, or another Chinese-linked aviation firm actually transferring sensitive military technology, training foreign nationals for PLA purposes, or compromising a specific military base's security. Harrigan's framing describes a structural vulnerability and a system that was never built to catch this kind of ownership, rather than a proven breach that has already occurred.

A reasonable critic of expanding CFIUS authority would point out that broader mandatory reviews create compliance costs for legitimate business transactions, and that not every foreign-owned aviation company is a security threat simply because of who owns it. General aviation manufacturers operate in a competitive global market, and foreign capital, absent evidence of misuse, has functioned as ordinary business investment for decades. The bill doesn't allege Cirrus has done anything illegal; it targets the ownership structure and the absence of a review mechanism, not a proven act of espionage or technology transfer.

What Happens Next

The GAP Act has just been introduced and has not yet had a committee vote or hearing scheduled as of Thursday, July 16, 2026. Its path through the House, and whether it draws bipartisan support or Senate interest, remains to be seen.

Whether Cirrus or AVIC will respond publicly to the bill, and whether CFIUS itself weighs in on the practicality of mandatory reviews for an entire industry sector, are open questions the coming weeks should answer.