Updated Jan. 8, 2021 4:14 am ET Shares in China’s three major telecommunications companies dropped in Hong Kong on Friday, after index compilers said they would remove the stocks from their benchmarks due to a U.S. government investment ban. The removals come after a period of uncertainty about whether the shares would be covered by the ban and flip flops by the New York Stock Exchange about whether to delist American depositary receipts issued by the three companies, China Mobile Ltd. , China Telecom Corp. and China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. Guidance from the Treasury Department this week made it clear that the publicly traded units would be covered, as well as their closely held parent companies, which the U.S. government has already named as helping the Chinese military.