All the White House alarms for Chinese investments. Report Ft
The administration wants to strengthen control over China's investments in American critical technologies. The in-depth analysis of the Financial Times
President Joe Biden urged his administration to pay close attention to inbound investment deals involving critical technologies such as semiconductors, as part of an ongoing effort to address security threats emanating from China. The Financial Times writes.
Biden on Thursday issued an executive order aimed at strengthening scrutiny of deals involving foreign companies in high-tech sectors such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing and biotechnology. The order was addressed to the U.S. Foreign Investment Committee, an inter-agency group that examines inbound investments for security risks.
Janet Yellen, US Treasury Secretary, who chairs the CFIUS process, said the executive order would strengthen the government's focus on protecting national security while maintaining an open investment policy.
"Strengthening our supply chains and protecting us from foreign threats strengthens our national security," said Yellen. "It also reaffirms the CFIUS mission to protect American technology leadership and the security of our citizens' sensitive data from emerging threats."
The order does not mention China by name. However, the industries cited closely resemble the list of high-tech sectors that the United States sees as a significant target for Chinese espionage, including Beijing's legal efforts to secure access to cutting-edge technology, such as through a ' acquisition that could then be used to threaten the United States.
US intelligence agencies, led by the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, launched a campaign last year to inform companies about the links between Chinese companies and the country's government, military and intelligence services. This effort focused on AI, quantum computing, biotechnology, chips and autonomous systems.
During a recent visit to London for talks with British intelligence and security officials, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned UK companies that China and its spying activities pose a more serious threat to Western companies. what even the most sophisticated companies realize.
The order did not provide Cfius with new powers. But a senior US official said it will send "a very clear public message to the private sector, in a way that often the daily work of the commission cannot do, on what factors … we are very focused on."
In the order, Biden said CFIUS officials should consider the impact of a transaction on the resilience of critical U.S. supply chains, which has been a top priority of his administration.
The White House is also considering issuing an executive order to create a screening mechanism for US outbound investments, just one of many efforts to make it harder for China to obtain cutting-edge technology.
"We are examining the gaps in our current toolkit, including the opportunity to consider some narrow, targeted requirements for … specific types of US investments in competing foreign countries," the US official said.
While the CFIUS examines incoming investment transactions on a case-by-case basis, a second US official said the executive order was meant to emphasize that the committee should also look at patterns that indicate security threats.
(Extract from the press review of eprcomunicazione)
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/stati-uniti-investimenti-tecnologia-cina/ on Sun, 18 Sep 2022 06:37:02 +0000.