Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has introduced a bill aiming to reduce Chinese control over technology used by the U.S. armed forces. Called the Protecting Critical Boards and Electronics Through Transparency and Enduring Reinvestment (PCBETTER) Act (pdf), the measure intends “to prevent Beijing from inserting and exploiting vulnerabilities in printed circuit boards (PCBs) that are made in China and used throughout the American military,” Hawley’s office said in an April 28 statement. Hawley’s office said that “a disproportionate amount” of printed circuit boards used in the Pentagon’s electronic systems come from China, where they are “vulnerable to sabotage” by the Chinese regime. Under the measure, Department of Defense contractors would be required to notify the Pentagon if the systems they provide contain printed circuit boards made in China “or other adversary nations” so that the U.S. military could take precautionary measures. The bill would also establish …