Biden expands Trump order by banning U.S. investment in Chinese companies linked to the military or surveillance technology Jeanne Whalen, Ellen Nakashima © Andy Wong/AP Surveillance cameras are mounted on a lamp post near the large portrait of Chinese leader Mao Zedong at the Tiananmen Gate in Beijing, Friday, March 15, 2019. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
The Biden administration is expanding a Trump-era order that banned U.S. investment in Chinese companies that support China’s military to include those selling surveillance technology, calling the entities a threat to U.S. interests and values.
A new executive order released Thursday broadens prohibitions that Donald Trump’s administration enacted and moves authority for the ban to the Treasury Department from the Defense Department, to give it stronger legal grounding, senior administration officials said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the order before its release.
United States places investment ban on several major Chinese companies like Huawei and SMIC
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stripes - Biden expands Trump order by banning U S investment in Chinese companies linked to the military or surveillance technology
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The move is part of Biden’s broader series of steps to counter China, including reinforcing US alliances and pursuing large domestic investments to bolster American economic competitiveness, amid increasingly sour relations between the world’s two most powerful countries.
Biden’s Indo-Pacific policy coordinator, Kurt Campbell, said last month that a period of engagement with China had come to an end and that the dominant paradigm in bilateral ties going forward would be one of competition.
Senior officials said the treasury would give guidance later on what the scope of surveillance technology means, including whether companies are facilitating “repression or serious human rights abuses”.