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Joe Biden’s China policy
ChinaDiplomacy

Joe Biden extends investment ban on firms Washington says are linked to China’s military

  • The president says China is ‘increasingly exploiting United States capital’ to help modernise its military and intelligence apparatuses
  • US entities are barred from buying or selling publicly traded securities in blacklist companies

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US President Joe Biden speaks during a press conference at the White House on Saturday. Photo: TNS
Jodi Xu Klein
US President Joe Biden on Tuesday extended a ban that prohibits American investments in Chinese companies that have alleged ties with the Chinese military.

“The PRC [People’s Republic of China] is increasingly exploiting United States capital to resource and to enable the development and modernisation of its military, intelligence, and other security apparatuses, which continues to allow the PRC to directly threaten the United States homeland and United States forces overseas,” Biden said in a letter to House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Biden said the ban, which was first announced by former president Donald Trump through an executive order in November 2020, will remain in effect beyond November 12, 2021.
The extension followed an expansion in June when Biden added nearly a dozen Chinese firms and their subsidiaries to the list, raising the total number of blacklisted companies to 59. The additions included China General Nuclear Power Corp and plastic pipe maker Aerosun Corp.
A Chinese flag hangs from a pole near the SMIC headquarters in Shanghai in December. Photo: Bloomberg
A Chinese flag hangs from a pole near the SMIC headquarters in Shanghai in December. Photo: Bloomberg

American investors are prohibited from buying new securities in these blacklisted companies on American markets and will be given a year to divest existing holdings.

The Biden administration has continued the hardline approach against China. The president said in the letter on Tuesday that the Chinese government uses its national strategy of military-civil fusion to compel civilian Chinese companies to support its military and intelligence activities.

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