China Expresses Opposition to Proposed US Restrictions on Outbound Investment

Beijing, Oct 24 (KUNA) -- China expressed its strong rejection on Saturday of the United States’ proposal to impose restrictions on outbound investment, deeming it an obstacle to normal economic cooperation between companies of the two countries and a undermining of the international trading system.

In a statement carried by the Xinhua News Agency, China’s Ministry of Commerce said that new regulations proposed by the U.S. Treasury Department on Friday tightened restrictions on Chinese companies’ investments and expanded their scope in a “discriminatory” manner, expressing serious concerns about them.

The ministry affirmed that the U.S. move exemplifies the overgeneralization of the national security concept, noting that it contradicts important agreements reached between the presidents of the two countries. It pointed out that the U.S. side’s restriction on its investments in China does not serve bilateral trade cooperation and will harm U.S. interests, urging Washington to respect market economy principles and to stop politicizing economic and trade issues and using them as a weapon.

China pledged to closely monitor developments in the situation and reserved Beijing’s right to take appropriate countermeasures.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced proposed investment restrictions on Friday under the Comprehensive Foreign Investment Security Act, which aims to prevent U.S. capital and expertise from supporting sensitive military technologies in competing countries. The new rules added high-performance computing, supercomputing, hypersonic systems, and biotechnology to previous rules covering artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and quantum computing, bringing the total number of sensitive technology areas covered to six. (End) S L Q / A M S