Biden issues an order banning US investment in 59 Chinese tech companies that aid surveillance, substantially expanding on an earlier order issued by Trump
The new order includes firms engaged in making and deploying the surveillance technology used against Muslim minorities and dissidents around the globe.
New York TimesDavid E. Sanger
Context & Ripple Effects
The order broadens a U.S. campaign that had already blacklisted eight Chinese technology companies over alleged human-rights violations involving Muslim minorities. It shifts the policy tool from restricting named companies’ access to U.S. technology toward restricting U.S. capital’s ability to back a wider surveillance-linked group.
Later coverage shows the surveillance-investment approach being applied to DJI and Megvii in an eight-company investment ban, before investment controls expanded to selected advanced semiconductor and quantum-computing companies.
First-order effects
U.S. investors must stop investing in the 59 designated Chinese companies, cutting off a category of U.S. capital from firms tied by the order to surveillance technology.
The named Chinese companies face an immediate investor-access constraint alongside the earlier U.S. restrictions aimed at surveillance-technology providers.
Second-order effects
U.S. asset managers and index providers must operationalize the designations, making human-rights and surveillance exposure a more direct screening issue for China-focused investment products.
Companies supplying or partnering with the designated firms face greater pressure to separate surveillance-linked business from activities that can still attract foreign capital.
Third-order effects
The policy establishes investment restrictions as a complement to entity blacklists: U.S. economic pressure on Chinese technology firms can target both technology access and ownership.
If the later move into semiconductor and quantum investment controls persists, the boundary for restricted Chinese technology investment will extend from alleged surveillance involvement to strategically sensitive capabilities.
The trend: U.S. China policy is evolving from company blacklists toward layered controls over both technology flows and U.S. investment in strategically sensitive firms.
FACT SHEET: Executive Order Addressing the Threat from Securities Investments that Finance Certain Companies of the People's Republic of China | The White House https://www.whitehouse.gov/...
Biden authorizes barring US investment in Chinese surveillance technology that is used outside of China or within the country “to facilitate repression or serious human rights abuses.” These investments undermine “security” and “democratic values.” https://www.whitehouse.gov/... …
This is an important and necessary step to ensure that American money no longer finances the surveillance state being built by the CCP. https://twitter.com/...
Great move, team Biden! Now the next step— ban U.S. firms from selling surveillance and repressive technologies to autocracies. “Biden issues an order barring U.S. investment in firms that aid surveillance and repression. https://www.nytimes.com/...
The prohibitions against the entities listed in the Annex to this E.O. shall take effect beginning at 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on August 2, 2021. Link for the list of all 59 Companies. 👇 https://www.whitehouse.gov/... https://twitter.com/...
On the eve of June 4, we welcome @WhiteHouse rewritten E.O. to include firms of surveillance technology — used against Muslim minorities like the Uigurs and dissidents in Hong Kong and in the Chinese diaspora around the globe. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://www.whitehouse.go…
Biden expands Trump ban on U.S. investments in Chinese companies that “undermine the security or democratic values of the United States and our allies.” https://www.whitehouse.gov/...
The Biden order on firms with ties to Chinese military or surveillance sector embraces the use of IEEPA to declare a national emergency to restrict investment targeting reasonably clear defense companies in China, as shown by the enumerated companies. https://www.whitehouse.gov/.…