The United States plans to add Alibaba and Tencent to the banned list |
The Trump administration is considering adding tech giants Alibaba and Tencent to the US blacklist of companies allegedly owned or controlled by the Chinese military.
This decision before the election of US President (Biden) will increase tension with China.
Defense Ministry officials in charge of the selection have not yet finalized plans to list these companies and are discussing plans for additional Chinese companies to be listed.
In the event of an increase, Alibaba and Tencent will be subject to an executive order signed by US President Trump in November that prohibits US investors from buying shares in blacklisted companies from November 2021.
Trump has taken a number of tough measures against Chinese companies in the past few days from the White House to cement his war tradition and the conflict between Beijing and Washington over the Coronavirus and the Chinese campaign in Hong Kong.
US President Trump signed a decree banning transactions with eight Chinese software apps, including the Alibaba group's Alipay mobile payment app, Tencent's QQ e-wallet and WeChat Pay.
Some investors have expressed doubts that Tencent and Alibaba are subject to long-term US restrictions because they are private companies largely owned by US and international investors.
The November decree was intended to authorize the 1999 law, which allowed the Ministry of Defense to draw up a list of Chinese companies suspected of owning or controlling the Chinese military.
The Pentagon fulfilled that requirement last year, blacklisting 35 companies, including China's leading chip maker SMIC and oil giant CNOOC.
Confusion over the scope of the November Executive Order has caused serious turmoil on the New York Stock Exchange in recent days.
The New York Stock Exchange announced that it will terminate China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom. Standard & Poor's and Dow Jones said after the New York Stock Exchange: it will remove US certificates of deposit from the three telecom companies.