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(CNN) – A major Chinese oil company that has been listed on Wall Street for decades has become the latest victim of tensions between Washington and Beijing.
The New York Stock Exchange announced on Friday that it will delist CNOOC, China’s third-largest oil company and its largest offshore oil producer. The firm’s shares will stop trading as of March 9.
The exchange said it was aimed at complying with an order former President Donald Trump signed in November that prohibits Americans from investing in companies that the US government suspects are owned or controlled by the Chinese military.
It is the fourth Chinese company to receive such a punishment. The exchange said in January that it would end trading of shares in China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom to comply with Trump’s order. Since then they have stopped trading.
CNOOC has been listed in New York since 2001. It said Sunday it “regrets” the NYSE’s decision and warned in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that delisting could affect share prices and volumes. He added that he would “closely monitor” any developments.
CNOOC’s Hong Kong-listed shares fell 1.1% on Monday.
The move is not the first time Washington has attacked CNOOC. Days before Trump left office in January, the US Commerce Department added the company to a list that effectively insulated it from US supplies and technology. At the time, former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross called the company a “bully” for China’s armed forces and claimed that other countries had harassed offshore oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea.
Beijing has repeatedly criticized such restrictions as an abuse of power by the United States.
The decision to remove CNOOC suggests that Washington is still willing to put pressure on Beijing in some areas when President Joe Biden begins his term.
Last month, the Biden administration emphasized that the new president wants to be tough on China. In a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Biden “underscored his fundamental concerns about Beijing’s coercive and unjust economic practices, the crackdown in Hong Kong, human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and increasingly assertive actions in the region, even towards Taiwan, “according to the White House.
And while Biden has adopted a more predictable and diplomatic tone than his predecessor, analysts have also noted that he is not likely to relax when addressing China on technology and trade.
This story was first published on CNN.com, “Wall Street is kicking out another great Chinese company.”
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