Heath Tarbert, Assistant Secretary for International Affairs of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, said at a meeting in Washington on Thursday (April 19) that the U.S. government is evaluating the launch of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (International). The feasibility of the Emergency Economic Powers Act. This Act gives the U.S. President extensive and high-level authority, including preventing impending transactions, canceling transactions, and freezing foreign assets. Trump can thus fully restrict China to U.S. semiconductor/chips, robots, Artificial intelligence (AI), 5G mobile technology and other sensitive areas of investment.
The New York Times reported more than a month ago that the White House is planning to use this law to restrict China’s investment in sensitive areas to prevent China from seizing the world’s leading position in cutting-edge technology. But Tabot is considered to be the Trump administration. The senior official confirmed the news in the first place.
The United States has already blocked some Chinese investments and is also expanding the scope of restrictions on Chinese companies investing in the United States. The statistics of consulting firm Rhodium Group show that in 2017 China’s investment in the United States was worth US$15 billion. , Compared with the record high of 46 billion U.S. dollars in 2016, it has fallen sharply.
At the same time, the U.S. Foreign Investment Committee (CFIUS) is also increasing its censorship of U.S. investment in M&A. In March this year, the agency rejected Broadcom’s application for the acquisition of U.S. chip giant Qualcomm (Qualcomm) in Singapore. In January, the agency rejected the acquisition of MoneyGram by Ant Financial Services on the grounds of national security. In September last year, the agency rejected an investor with Chinese government support for US chip company Laidi for the same reason. Lattice Semiconductor's mergers and acquisitions.
The U.S. Congress is also drafting a bill that intends to further expand the authority of the U.S. Foreign Investment Commission to cover the direct investment of Chinese and foreign joint ventures in the United States.
However, the power of the “International Emergency Economic Power Act” that the Trump administration is considering to use will far exceed that of CFIUS. The U.S. government will be able to engage in M&A transactions in any area, regardless of whether the transaction involves national security.
At a regular press conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on April 20, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hua Chunying accused the United States of restricting China’s investment in the United States’ high-tech field to be “protecting trade protectionism in the name of national security.” She said: ' In the final analysis (this) is to expose the US hegemony mentality that 'only if I can, you are not allowed to have'.
Bloomberg quoted four people as saying that the U.S. Department of the Treasury is making plans to select areas that prohibit Chinese companies from investing in the United States. Possible areas include: Semiconductors, 5G mobile communications technology, etc.