(Bloomberg) – The Pentagon placed Huawei Technologies Co. and Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. on a list of 20 companies that it says are owned or controlled by the Chinese military, opening them up to possible additional U.S. sanctions. .
In letters to lawmakers dated June 24, the Pentagon said it was providing a list of “Chinese Communist military companies operating in the United States.” The list was first requested in the Fiscal Defense Policy Act of 1999.
The implications of the move were not immediately clear, but it came as relations between the two superpowers continue to deteriorate and China has become an issue of the election year in the United States.
“The list released today by the Pentagon is a start but woefully inadequate to warn the American people of state-run and targeted companies that support the activities of the Chinese government and the Communist Party that threaten the economic and national security of the United States,” he said. Republican Senator Marco Rubio. he said in a statement.
“The list only touches the surface of the Chinese government’s exploitation of the US capital markets at the expense of retail investors and pensioners by omitting the networks of affiliated and subsidiary companies.”
In addition to Huawei and Hikvision, the list includes China Railway Construction Corp., China Telecommunications Corp, China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp., and Panda Electronics Group.
The list of companies said to be affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army was ordered under the Defense Authorization Act of 1999, but no administration issued the required report. Trump has the authority under the 1977 International Emergency Economics Powers Act to level the financial sanctions against those companies.
China’s hawks in Congress have long lobbied him to direct his Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to implement such sanctions against Huawei. However, it is unclear whether the president would be willing to take such aggressive action against some of China’s most cherished business champions in an election year, as the Beijing government would likely retaliate against American companies, as they and the The US economy in general has been shaken by the coronavirus pandemic.
Derek Scissors, a China expert at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said he was “long overdue for the government to indicate which Chinese companies have close ties to the EPL.” But if there is no meaningful action with that, it would simply be a stance, possibly in reaction to Bolton’s book. “
In his memoirs, which go on sale Tuesday, former national security adviser John Bolton claimed that Trump asked China’s leader Xi Jinping to beef up purchases of American farm products to help him win re-election in November. Trump has rejected that claim.
The companies on the list are:
China Aviation Industry Corporation; China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation; China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation; China Electronic Technology Group Corporation; South China Industries Group Corporation; China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation; China State Shipbuilding Corporation; North China Industries Group Corporation; Huawei Technologies Co.; Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co.; Inspur Group; Aero Engine Corporation of China; China Railway Construction Corporation; CRRC Corp.; Panda Electronics Group; Dawning Information Industry Co.; China Mobile Communications Group; China General Nuclear Power Corp.; China National Nuclear Energy Corporation .; China Telecommunications Corp.
(Updates with context, starting in the seventh paragraph).
For more items like this, visit us at bloomberg.com
Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted source of business news.
© 2020 Bloomberg LP
