White House
The United States has imposed a ban on foreign investments by American companies in the fields of advanced technology, especially artificial intelligence and quantum computing, in “problematic countries”, led by China, according to what the Treasury Department announced Wednesday in a statement.
The decision emanating from a decree issued by President Joe Biden is supposed to allow “the defense of American national security by protecting sensitive technologies for the new generation of military innovations,” according to the ministry, which, on the other hand, stressed the “very limited” nature of the decree in order to ensure “our adherence to foreign investments.” for American companies.
In practice, the new rules require US companies and individuals to inform the administration of certain transactions, while expressly prohibiting other transactions when they involve “entities related to the advanced technologies referred to in the decree.”
An official in the US administration said that “China seeks to acquire and produce basic technologies that can help modernize its army,” adding that this decree “aims specifically to limit US investments in companies involved in this effort.”
The Biden administration fears that China will benefit from US investments, not only at the level of technology transfer, but also through “intangible benefits” such as accompanying the establishment of production lines, knowledge exchange and market access.
“At the last G7 summit, the leaders stressed our common interest in providing appropriate protection for sensitive technologies with implications for national security, and in controlling investments in this regard,” the source said.
“It is a big step forward,” Nicholas Lardy, a researcher at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told AFP in response to a question.
But he warned that the United States’ unilateral pursuit of “cutting off financing from private investment funds or venture capital” may ultimately lead to limited impact.
However, Emily Benson, a project manager on trade and technologies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, considered that the volume and total value of transactions covered by this ban may ultimately be very limited, but she indicated that the real impact of this decision could be greater.
“Companies, even if they are not directly targeted by these restrictions, may deliberately think twice about the type of investments they make, which could reduce bilateral investments in the long term,” she said in a statement to AFP.
The new decision constitutes an additional step in the path of preventing China from reducing the technological gap that currently exists between the two superpowers.
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2023-08-09 22:23:56
