June 3, 2021 6:24 PM | With information from EFE
15 minutes. The Joe Biden government on Thursday expanded the ban on Americans to invest in 59 Chinese companies linked to the military and intelligence sectors, including technology Huawei and the 3 largest telecommunications companies in the Asian giant.
The veto, contained in a decree by US President Joe Biden, will take effect on August 2 at 00:01 on the east coast of the United States (04:01 GMT), the White House reported in a statement.
The decree expands the scope of another executive order signed last November by former US President Donald Trump. It vetoed the country’s investments in a number of Chinese companies, including Xioami and Huawei, for allegedly backing the efforts of Beijing’s intelligence, military and security apparatuses.
The main difference from Biden’s order is that it does not prohibit investments in Xiaomi, one of the main global cell phone manufacturers and Huawei’s main competitor in the Chinese market.
In February, Xiaomi sued the US government for its inclusion on that blacklist. At the end of May, a US federal court agreed with the Chinese company. This forced the Biden Executive to remove her from his list of sanctioned.
In total, Biden’s order raises the number of affected Chinese companies from 48 to 59, including companies that sell surveillance or espionage technologies.
Among those affected are the three largest telecommunications companies in the Asian giant: China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom.
Pass responsibility to the Treasury
In addition, the decree gives the Treasury Department the responsibility for the implementation of the veto, to reinforce the legal basis for the sanctions. Until now the same fell on the Pentagon.
The White House plans to regularly expand the list of affected Chinese companies. It will give US investors one year, starting on August 2, to divest their assets in those companies.
The goal of the veto is to ensure that US investments “do not support the Chinese defense sector,” according to the White House.
It also seeks to prevent the benefit of companies whose surveillance technologies “contribute, inside or outside China, to spying on religious or ethnic minorities; or they facilitate repression and serious human rights abuses ”, he added.
The ban promises to intensify rising tensions with China since Biden came to power.
