US Treasury head defensive after reports that Chinese investment in US tech will be blocked and declared a security risk
The US Treasury Secretary has tried to play down claims that America is targeting Chinese ownership of US companies in ‘industrially significant’ technologies
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has come out in defence of leaked White House rules on foreign investment, saying that they will apply to all countries investing in US technology, not just China.
Both Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal have reported that the White House is planning to heighten scrutiny of Chinese investments in sensitive US industries under an emergency law, putting Washington’s trade war with Beijing on a potentially irreversible course.
According to Bloomberg, eight people familiar with the plans said that the White House would use one of the most significant legal measures available to declare China’s investment in certain US companies a threat to economic and national security.
On Monday morning, Mnuchin tweeted that this was “false, fake news”, although he did not deny that the plans did not exist – only that they would be applied not just to China, “but to all countries that are trying to steal our technology”.
The White House’s plans would apply to companies involved in technologies such as new-energy vehicles, robotics and aerospace, Bloomberg reported.