Biden renews Trump ban on Chinese investments

President Joe Biden issued a new executive order Thursday barring Americans from investing in Chinese firms linked to the country’s military or engaged in selling surveillance technology — both inside and outside China — used to repress dissent or religious minorities.

The new order, which initially lists 59 Chinese firms, substantially expands an order issued in November by President Donald Trump. By rewriting that earlier order to include firms engaged in making and deploying the surveillance technology — used against Muslim minorities like the Uyghurs and dissidents in Hong Kong and in the Chinese diaspora around the globe — it intensifies a commercial and ideological battle between Beijing and Washington, one that Biden has termed the struggle between “autocracy and democracy.”

The move comes at a moment when China is both ramping up its ability to spy on its nearly 1.4 billion people, using a mix of facial-recognition cameras and software, phone-scanners and a range of other tools, and exporting that technology to nations around the world. It is often sold abroad as part of a package of communications equipment provided by companies like Huawei, or as part of China’s Belt-and-Road initiative, which aims to expand the country’s trade ties.

Biden’s aides said the move was justified by a new American commitment not to facilitate Chinese repression and human rights abuses.

But China regularly decries such moves as interference in its domestic affairs, and in the past has sought to retaliate with bans on American companies, leading to fears of broad economic decoupling between the world’s two largest economies. And the Chinese will likely argue that the United States and other countries use some of the same technologies and techniques to track terrorists and drug lords.

It is unclear how effective Biden’s order will be at stopping the spread of Chinese espionage technology.