Restricting Chinese investment in critical American technology and infrastructure.
Signed an "America First Investment Policy" memorandum instructing the US to utilize all necessary legal tools to prevent Chinese-affiliated investments in American "technology, critical infrastructure, healthcare, agriculture, energy, raw materials, or other strategic sectors".
Those tools included the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which reviews whether foreign investments impact US national security.
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China's Ministry of Commerce stated that the measures are "very unreasonable".
It is discriminatory. It is a common non-market practice that significantly impacts normal economic and trade cooperation between the companies of the two countries.
"The order would exacerbate the distortion of investment exchanges between the two countries and would not yield any benefits to the US itself," the commerce ministry stated on Saturday.
China will closely monitor the US actions and take necessary measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.
The memorandum stated that China had been targeting the "crown jewels" of US technology - including food supplies, farmland, minerals, natural resources, ports, and shipping terminals - through multiple methods, both overt and covert.
The order stated: "China does not permit US companies to control its vital infrastructure, and the US should not permit China to control US vital infrastructure."
Washington stated that it will also employ "legal instruments" to discourage American investment in China's military-industrial sector, and claimed that Beijing is utilizing US capital to develop and modernize its military, intelligence, and other security systems.
The Chinese commerce ministry stated that the US order "broadens the concept of national security" and cautioned that increasing security reviews would "seriously weaken" corporate confidence in investing in the United States in the future.
It called on Washington to provide a "fair, transparent, stable, and predictable business environment" for Chinese companies to invest in the United States.
The US business community has warned that US investment restrictions on China will lead to American companies losing the Chinese market to their competitors.
China urges the US to adhere to international investment and trade regulations, respect the principles of a market economy, and refrain from politicizing and weaponizing economic and trade matters. China will closely observe the developments in the United States and take necessary steps to safeguard our legitimate rights and interests.
The United States imposed tariffs and other restrictions on Chinese goods, which sparked a trade war between the two nations. The measures included a 25% tariff on more than $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, as well as restrictions on the sale of U.S. technology to Chinese companies.
During the video conference with He, Bessent stated Washington's own concerns regarding China's economic policies and its attempts to regulate the flow of narcotics.
Earlier this month, President Trump ordered a 10 percent tariff to be imposed on Chinese goods entering the United States. In response, Beijing announced it would impose tariffs of 10 to 15 percent on certain US products.
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This article was first published on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), a leading news source covering China and Asia.
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