Forbidden code: which US investments in China are subject to restrictions

The preparation by the Americans of a new package of restrictive measures against China was no secret. Back in October last year, the Joe Biden administration imposed a ban on the export to China of super-powerful computing chips, equipment for their production, and a number of other semiconductor technologies.

Moreover, the measures affected not only the corresponding products of American companies, but also all the chips in the world that were produced using American technologies or equipment. And even then in the States they openly said that they would not stop there.

As a result, on August 9, the head of the White House, Joe Biden, signed an order according to which American companies will not be able to invest their capital in Chinese companies involved in the development and production of semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies, as well as in a number of artificial intelligence systems. The purpose of such restrictions is to prevent American investment and experience from helping China develop technologies that can support the military modernization of the main geopolitical rival of the States and thereby undermine the national security of America itself. Because, as Biden explained, computers can evolve in ways that can help create sophisticated weapons and break the cryptographic codes used by spy agencies to protect data.

The new measures, effective from the beginning of the new year, will affect private equity, venture capital, joint ventures and investment in greenfields. True, these rules will apply only to future, and not already made investments, but the Ministry of Finance has the right to require disclosure of information about previous transactions.

“For too long, American money has fueled the growth of the Chinese military. Today, the United States is taking the first strategic step to ensure that American investments do not fund China’s military buildup, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said.