In 2020, President Trump signed an executive order prohibiting American companies from investing in Chinese organizations with known links to the military; President Biden extended that ban Thursday. The ban was part of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, an Act that gives the President certain powers when there is an “Unusual and extraordinary threat” followed by a “declaration of national emergency.”
President Biden extended Trump’s ban on companies in China with known links to the Chinese military in 2021 and 2022 and has even added companies to the original list.
President Biden on Thursday expanded restrictions on American investments in certain Chinese companies with alleged ties to the country’s military and surveillance efforts, adding more firms to a growing blacklist. https://t.co/0m6LPsGak5
— CNBC (@CNBC) June 4, 2021
President Biden is set to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping for their first face-to-face since Biden took office though, according to CNN, they have spoken on the phone five times.
Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “The leaders will discuss efforts to maintain and deepen lines of communication between the United States and the PRC, responsibly manage competition, and work together where our interests align, especially on transnational challenges that affect the international community. The two leaders will also discuss a range of regional and global issues.”
The extension of the ban on Chinese companies came just one day before Biden announced his meeting with Xi, and two days prior to the Nov. 12 deadline to extend the ban. In June, Biden extended the order to include businesses associated with Chinese intelligence and security industries as well.
Biden described the upcoming meeting like this: “I’m looking for competition, not conflict. [I want] to understand what [Xi] believes to be in the critical national interests of China, what I know to be the critical interests of the United States, and to determine whether or not they conflict with one another. And if they do, how to resolve it and how to work it out.”
According to CNBC, Biden is expected to bring up Taiwan, China’s relationship with Russia, and Chinese economic practices in their first face-to-face meeting. Tensions between China and the U.S. are as high as ever, and this meeting will go a long way to determine whether those tensions remain or if the two countries can work together in the future.
