Biden to restrict investments in China, citing national security threats

The Biden administration plans on Wednesday to issue new restrictions on American investments in certain advanced industries in China, according to people familiar with the deliberations, a move that supporters have described as necessary to protect national security but that will undoubtedly rankle Beijing.

The measure would be one of the first significant steps the United States has taken in its economic clash with China to clamp down on financial flows. It could set the stage for more restrictions on investments between the two countries in the years to come.

Also read | Biden says he will visit Vietnam 'shortly'

The restrictions would bar private equity and venture capital firms from making investments in certain high-tech sectors, such as quantum computing, artificial intelligence and advanced semiconductors, the people said, in a bid to stop the transfer of American dollars and expertise to China.

It would also require firms making investments in a broader range of Chinese industries to report that activity, giving the government better visibility into financial exchanges between the United States and China.

Biden officials have emphasised that outright restrictions on investment would narrowly target a few sectors that could aid the Chinese military or surveillance state as they seek to combat security threats but not disrupt legitimate business with China.

“There is mounting evidence that US capital is being used to advance Chinese military capabilities and that the US lacks a sufficient means of combating this activity,” said Emily Benson, director of project on trade and technology at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

The Biden administration has recently sought to calm relations with China, dispatching Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other top officials to talk with Chinese counterparts.

But the Biden administration has continued to push to “de-risk” critical supply chains by developing suppliers outside China, and it has steadily ramped up its restrictions on selling certain technologies to China, including semiconductors for advanced computing.

The Chinese government has long restricted certain foreign investments by individuals and firms. Other governments, such as those of Taiwan and South Korea, also have restrictions on outgoing investments.

But until now, the US government had left financial flows between the world’s two largest economies largely untouched. Just a few years ago, US policymakers were working to open up Chinese financial markets for US firms.

In the past few years, investments between the United States and China have fallen sharply as the countries severed other economic ties. But venture capital and private equity firms have continued to seek out lucrative opportunities for partnerships, as a way to gain access to China’s vibrant tech industry.

The planned measure has faced criticism from congressional Republicans and others who say it has taken too long and does not go far enough to limit US funding of Chinese technology. In July, a House committee on China sent letters to four US venture capital firms expressing “serious concern” about their investments in Chinese companies in areas including artificial intelligence and semiconductors.

Others have argued that the restriction would mainly put the US economy at a disadvantage, because other countries continue to forge technology partnerships with China, and China has no shortage of capital.

Nicholas Lardy, a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said the United States was the source of less than 5 per cent of China’s inbound direct investment in 2021 and 2022.

“Unless other major investors in China adopt similar restrictions, I think this is a waste of time,” Lardy said. “Pushing this policy now simply plays into the hands of those in Beijing who believe that the US seeks to contain China and are not interested in renewed dialogue or a ‘thaw.’ ”

Biden officials have talked with allies in recent months to explain the measure and encourage other governments to adopt similar restrictions, including at the Group of 7 meetings in Japan in May. Since then, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, has urged the European Union to introduce its own measure.

The administration is expected to give businesses and other organizations a chance to comment on the new rules before they are finalised in the months to come.

Claire Chu, a senior China analyst at Janes, a defense intelligence company, said communicating and enforcing the measure would be difficult, and that officials would need to engage closely with Silicon Valley and Wall Street.

“For a long time, the US national security community has been reticent to recognize the international financial system as a potential warfighting domain,” she said. “And the business community has pushed back against what it considers to be the politicization of private markets. And so this is not only an interagency effort, but an exercise in intersectoral coordination.”