WILMINGTON, Del. — WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — The Biden administration is close to tightening rules on some foreign investments by US companies in an effort to limit China’s ability to acquire technologies that could enhance its military prowess, according to a US official. familiar with the deliberations.
President Joe Biden’s soon-to-be-issued executive order will limit US investment in advanced technologies that have national security applications, such as next-generation military capabilities that could help China improve the speed and accuracy of military decision-making, according to the official, who was not authorized to comment and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The expected move is the latest effort by the White House to target China’s military and technology sectors at a time of increasingly tense relations between the world’s two largest economies.
In October, the Biden administration imposed export controls to limit China’s ability to access advanced chips, which it says can be used to make weapons, commit human rights abuses, and improve the speed and precision of its military logistics.
The complicated relationship has grown even more tense in recent weeks after the United States shot down a Chinese spy balloon flying across the country last month. The Biden administration has also released US intelligence findings raising concerns that Beijing is considering arming Russia for its ongoing war against Ukraine.
The tensions were on full display when top diplomats from the Group of 20 industrial and developing countries ended a contentious meeting in New Delhi on Thursday without consensus on the Ukraine war and concerns about China’s growing global influence, which dominates much of the world. conversations.
Meanwhile, China criticized the new House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party last week after it held its first hearing on how to counter Beijing’s influence. Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning demanded its members “dismiss their ideological bias and zero-sum Cold War mentality.”
Administration officials have been consulting with allies as they worked on the formulation of new regulations on US investment, according to the official.
The Wall Street Journal first reported Saturday that the Treasury and Commerce departments delivered briefs to lawmakers Friday detailing plans for a new regulatory system to address overseas US investment in advanced technologies. The agencies said they hoped to seek additional money for the investment evaluation program in the White House budget, which is due to be released on March 9, according to the Journal.
A White House National Security Council spokesman declined to comment on the Treasury and Trade reports, but noted that administration officials have been keeping Congress informed about their progress in crafting an approach to investing in the foreign.
The expected action will surely meet with pushback from American companies. Administration officials have tried to signal to the business community that even as they seek to scrutinize the rules on US investment in China, they are careful not to overreach.
“One of the most important things that we can do, from my perspective, is make sure that we draw clear lines between what is competition and what is national security because, fundamentally, my view is that the United States does well when we are competing. on equal terms with any country in the world,” Under Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo said at a recent Council on Foreign Relations event. “But we also want, in the narrow spaces where we see national security risk, to be able to use the tools at our disposal to protect the national security of the United States of America.”
Last year, a bipartisan group of lawmakers urged Biden to establish a stricter screening system for investments in foreign adversaries, with China as a priority.
