China urges US to halt proposed expansion of outbound investment curbs

By Eduardo Baptista

BEIJING, Oct 24 (Reuters) – The Chinese commerce ministry urged the United States on Saturday to stop expanding restrictions on American investments in China, saying a proposed rule on sensitive technologies would disrupt trade ties.

The US Treasury Department issued proposals on Thursday to update its outbound-investment security programme, adding biotechnology to restricted sectors and expanding coverage of high-performance computing and hypersonic systems.

Beijing’s commerce ministry said in a statement that the proposal “discriminatorily” widened China-related investment restrictions and intensified curbs.

It firmly opposed the US proposal and reserved the right to take unspecified countermeasures, it added.

Beijing also said the proposal would damage bilateral economic ties and ran counter to the consensus reached by the countries’ presidents, who have met twice in the past six months.

The US Treasury has said the measures, which do not only cover China, are intended to stop US capital from supporting foreign adversaries’ development of dual-use strategic technologies that could threaten US national security.

The US programme had already restricted certain US investments involving China in semiconductors, quantum technologies and artificial intelligence.

(Reporting by Eduardo Baptista and Beijing newsroom; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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