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| Ban on US investment in Chinese surveillance firms |
President Joe Biden has signed an executive order extending a Trump-era ban on Americans from investing in Chinese companies allegedly linked to the Chinese military.
The order increased the number of restricted Chinese companies from 48 to 59. It also rewrote an earlier order from former President Donald Trump to include companies that develop and use surveillance technology as it is used against Muslim minorities in Hong Kong and opponents.
The move shows that Biden plans to continue some of the China-related guidelines previously implemented by the Trump administration.
The 59 companies do not include DJI, WeChat, Douyin, or parent company ByteDance. Although people were worried about the relationship between these companies and China.
Last year, Trump signed an executive order banning the use of Chinese apps like Tik Tok and WeChat on US app stores. But Biden's order is separate from Trump's ban on these apps.
US Investment Limits:
In February of this year, the Biden administration applied to the Federal Court of Appeals to suspend all legal steps related to blocking these apps. It's unclear how Biden intends to counter the Tik-Tok ban in the future.
A White House official said that in the coming months, we expect more companies to join the new restrictions set by the executive order.
The New York Times reported that the move was part of the Biden government's commitment to promoting human rights abuses in China.
For many years, the Chinese government has been combining facial recognition technology, mobile phone scanners and artificial intelligence as part of a comprehensive surveillance campaign to improve the skills of Chinese police forces.
The decree bars Americans from investing in these additional Chinese companies from August 2. This also applies to Americans who invest in money and then invest in Chinese companies. The decree allows existing investors in these companies to liquidate their holdings within one year.
Under this new decree, the Ministry of Finance will be responsible for drawing up the list of banned companies. The Trump administration had previously ceded authority to the Department of Defense.
For years, the federal government has called for more intense action against Chinese technology and telecom companies.
Last year, the US Federal Communications Commission listed the operators Huawei and ZTE as national security threats.
In addition, when buying Huawei devices abroad, sometimes monitoring technology is sold as part of the package.
In September last year, the Federal Communications Commission estimated the cost of replacing equipment for these companies at $1.8 billion.