US investment policy 'disrupts' global supply chains: China
BEIJING
Beijing yesterday vowed to "safeguard" its interests against a new U.S. policy to restrict investment in Chinese technology, accusing Washington of disrupting global supply chains.
U.S. President Joe Biden hours earlier announced an executive order directing the Treasury Department to restrict certain U.S. investments in China in sensitive high-tech sectors including semiconductors, quantum computing and artificial intelligence.
China's foreign ministry blasted the move as an attempt to "engage in anti-globalisation and de-sinicisation", warning that China would "resolutely safeguard its own rights and interests".
"Beijing is strongly dissatisfied and firmly opposes the United States' insistence on introducing restrictions on investment in China, and has lodged solemn representations with the United States," an unnamed foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement published online.
Biden's executive order "seriously deviates from the market economy and fair competition principles the U.S. has always promoted, and affects companies' normal operation decisions, damages the international trade order, and severely disrupts the security of global industrial and supply chains", the Chinese commerce ministry said in a separate statement.
"China expresses serious concern about this and reserves the right to take measures," the spokesperson said in a statement published by the ministry, without mentioning specific countermeasures.
The restrictions, which are expected to take effect next year, come as Biden's administration looks to bolster its position vis-a-vis China on a multitude of fronts: military, economic and technological.
China hopes the U.S. will "avoid artificially obstructing global economic and trade exchanges and cooperation, and avoid setting up obstacles for the recovery of the world economy", the Chinese commerce ministry spokesperson.
Biden signed the executive order on Aug. 9 to block and regulate high-tech U.S.-based investments going toward China — a move the administration said was targeted but it also reflected an intensifying competition between the world's two biggest powers.
The order covers advanced computer chips, micro electronics, quantum information technologies and artificial intelligence.
Senior administration officials said that the effort stemmed from national security goals rather than economic interests, and that the categories it covered were intentionally narrow in scope.
The order seeks to blunt China's ability to use U.S. investments in its technology companies to upgrade its military while also preserving broader levels of trade that are vital for both nations' economies.
