WASHINGTON DC — Joe Biden intends to this week overhaul a list of Chinese
firms that US investors are allowed to own shares in, as the president reevaluates
the world powers' post-Trump relationship while maintaining pressure on
Beijing.
اضافة اعلان
Donald Trump prohibited Americans from buying stakes in 31 Chinese companies
that were deemed to be supplying or supporting China's military and security
apparatus.
The list included major telecoms, construction and technology firms such as
China Mobile, China Telecom, video surveillance firm Hikvision, and China
Railway Construction Corp.
It was among a series of measures by the White House aimed at quelling the
Asian giant's rise and which has left ties between the two severely strained.
Biden's new order will see the Treasury Department create a list of firms
that would be hit with financial penalties for their links with China's defense
and surveillance technology sectors, Bloomberg News reported without citing
sources. The president is expected to sign the order this week, it added.
Previously, the sanctions and choice of targets were tied to a
congressionally mandated Defense Department report.
The review came after two Chinese companies successfully challenged the order
in court, and Biden said it was needed to be sure it was legally watertight and
sustainable.
While the Biden administration has pledged to take a more diplomatic line
with China following the upheaval of his predecessor, he has said he will keep
to a strict line on several issues including defense and technology.
He is expected to keep the list largely intact, while the Treasury's Office
of Foreign Assets Control will add new firms after consulting the departments
of Defense and State.
A tough line on China has rare cross-party support on Capitol Hill, with
lawmakers determined to keep a lid on its growing global clout.
Republican senators Tom Cotton and Marco Rubio, alongside Democrats Gary
Peters and Mark Kelly, published a bipartisan letter earlier this week urging
the administration to publish a new list.
"The US government must continue to act boldly in blocking the Chinese
Communist Party's economic predation against our industrial base," they
said.
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