A group of Republican lawmakers is seeking to lift the veil on more than 100 sister city agreements between the United States and China. The partnerships, they say, are vehicles through which the Chinese regime expands its influence in local communities across America. There are 157 such sister city agreements with China in the United States. Most of these are not made public and thus have not been scrutinized. But a new bill, introduced by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) on March 11, would direct the U.S. Comptroller General to conduct a study of these partnerships to identify how the Chinese regime and other foreign governments with significant public corruption could exploit them to carry out “malign activities,” such as academic and industrial espionage. “The opacity of sister city partnerships impedes proper oversight and could enable malign activity,” a fact sheet (pdf) released by Blackburn’s office reads. Blackburn, in a statement, …