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China Government United States Technology

Biden Issues an Executive Order Restricting US Investments In Chinese Technology (apnews.com) 59

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: President Joe Biden signed an executive order Wednesday to block and regulate high-tech U.S.-based investments going toward China -- a move the administration said was targeted but it also reflected an intensifying competition between the world's two biggest powers. The order covers advanced computer chips, micro electronics, quantum information technologies and artificial intelligence. Senior administration officials said that the effort stemmed from national security goals rather than economic interests, and that the categories it covered were intentionally narrow in scope. The order seeks to blunt China's ability to use U.S. investments in its technology companies to upgrade its military while also preserving broader levels of trade that are vital for both nations' economies.

The officials previewing the order said that China has exploited U.S. investments to support the development of weapons and modernize its military. The new limits were tailored not to disrupt China's economy, but they would complement the export controls on advanced computer chips from last year that led to pushback by Chinese officials. The Treasury Department, which would monitor the investments, will announce a proposed rulemaking with definitions that would conform to the presidential order and go through a public comment process. The goals of the order would be to have investors notify the U.S. government about certain types of transactions with China as well as to place prohibitions on some investments. Officials said the order is focused on areas such as private equity, venture capital and joint partnerships in which the investments could possibly give countries of concern such as China additional knowledge and military capabilities.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce responded in a statement early Thursday that it has "serious concern" about the order and "reserves the right to take measures."

"We hope the U.S. side respects the laws of the market economy and the principle of fair competition, does not artificially obstruct global economic and trade exchanges and cooperation and does not put up obstacles for the recovery and growth of the world economy."

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce also said the executive order "seriously deviates from the market economy and fair competition principles the United States has always advocated. It affects the normal business decisions of enterprises, disrupts the international economic and trade order and seriously disrupts the security of global industrial and supply chains."
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Biden Issues an Executive Order Restricting US Investments In Chinese Technology

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  • by Thoth Ptolemy ( 110353 ) on Thursday August 10, 2023 @08:10AM (#63755670)
    ... for how the CCP is right and Biden is bad and communist/socialist.
    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by GlennC ( 96879 )

      I'm waiting to see if the CCP or the MAGA crowd says it first.

      • by Freischutz ( 4776131 ) on Thursday August 10, 2023 @08:51AM (#63755786)

        Eagerly awaiting ... for how the CCP is right and Biden is bad and communist/socialist.

        I'm waiting to see if the CCP or the MAGA crowd says it first.

        What I find amusing about all of this is that the Trump administration picked harebrained crap like Huawei equipment beaming every bit of data on the US internet back to CCP HQ, which, so far, nobody has been able to prove or the equally unproven accusation that China engineered the COVID virus and released it to somehow attack Trump's presidency when there are (and have been for decades) so many easily verifiable problems with China's behaviour as an international actor. If the Biden administration is going to retaliate for China's provable shenanigans by limiting China's access to western markets then they can legitimately do that without inventing asinine conspiracy theories. Between state sponsored dumping on world markets, government sponsored wholesale IP theft, the way foreign companies are not treated under Chinese law the way Chinese companies are treated in the west and the fact that Chinese companies can effectively get away with murder in Chinese courts ... the list goes on ... there are plenty of irrefutable fact based reasons staring us in the face over which to play hard-ball with China without anybody having to resorting to making use of the fertile imaginations of Q-Anon and the MAGA crowd.

        • We need to next stop China from buying and owning property IN the US.

          Also, I wonder if they have found all of the Chinese police stations on US grounds yet....?

          • by DarkOx ( 621550 )

            I don't know but we NEED to make an example of those Chinese agents. They should be executed as spies.

            The CCP needs to be sent a message this stuff isnt going to be tolerated and some public hangings would do that.

            • The CCP needs to be sent a message this stuff isnt going to be tolerated and some public hangings would do that.

              Because if there is one thing Xi Jinping concerns himself with, it's the physical well-being of his people.

        • Except Huawei [wired.co.uk] has a history of shenanigans. Never mind the fact that all Chinese companies are just organs of the CCP, they are all foreign agents waiting to happen. Why wait for the CCP to pull the trigger? Why accept that risk? Removing unacceptable risks to critical infrastructure is just unwise for any country to do.

          I'll happily shit on Trump, the GQP, Q-anon, MAGA, the right wing media, etc for their constant failures and lies. I'll also give Trump credit for doing good when credit is due, and I thin

          • Except Huawei [wired.co.uk] has a history of shenanigans. Never mind the fact that all Chinese companies are just organs of the CCP, they are all foreign agents waiting to happen. Why wait for the CCP to pull the trigger? Why accept that risk? Removing unacceptable risks to critical infrastructure is just unwise for any country to do.

            I'll happily shit on Trump, the GQP, Q-anon, MAGA, the right wing media, etc for their constant failures and lies. I'll also give Trump credit for doing good when credit is due, and I think on things like Huawei credit is due. As opposed to getting paid by the CCP [forbes.com], which is just more failure and lies on the pile.

            And Google, Twitter, Facebook, GM, Monsanto, ... , etc. are also getting to shenanigans, and, according to the Q-Anon/MAGA community they are all organs of the 'deep-state'. Huawei is nothing more than just another greedy corporation in a very long list of greedy corporations getting up to Shenannigans, **GHASP**, Greedy corporations getting up to shenanigans! NEWS AT 11!!!. The US right wing's Captain Ahab like obsession with Huawei is a waste of time. I don't give a flying fart about Huawei for the simpl

        • by smooth wombat ( 796938 ) on Thursday August 10, 2023 @11:23AM (#63756176) Journal
          What I find amusing about all of this is that the Trump administration picked harebrained crap like Huawei equipment beaming every bit of data on the US internet back to CCP HQ,

          Why do you think Ivanka received her Chinese patents [forbes.com] so quickly?
          • by mjwx ( 966435 )

            What I find amusing about all of this is that the Trump administration picked harebrained crap like Huawei equipment beaming every bit of data on the US internet back to CCP HQ,

            Why do you think Ivanka received her Chinese patents [forbes.com] so quickly?

            You don't need an international spy ring to know that is how cheaply Trump could be bought. I mean a decoder ring and 2 brain cells should be able to tell you that.

    • You should already know the answer. In any event, Executive Orders only legally apply to the Executive branch of the U.S. government and nothing else..

    • I am surprised they bothered. The CCP has come down on business in this area so hard that it is ending growth in China.

  • by DeplorableCodeMonkey ( 4828467 ) on Thursday August 10, 2023 @08:10AM (#63755672)

    It's amazing, as someone with an attention span that goes well beyond one election cycle, watch all of the NPCs who cried "trade war/protectionism/capitalism" at Trump turn on a dime and accept it and even embrace it now that Biden is the one doing it (and much harder than Trump did).

    Can't say I'm surprised because the same sort of people were shrieking "Chimpy McBushitler warmonger" at Bush and then supported virtually every single act of naked aggression by Obama and then called Trump a wimp for being a diplomacy-first President.

    Having a long term attention span in American politics is enough to destroy any belief that even most "educated Americans" are morally fit to participate since so many are flaming hypocrites who have no principles except "my team rules, your team droolz"

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by SirSlud ( 67381 )

      a lot of words, and yet not a single one in service of an argument to support that this is economic policy in disguise

      but sure, you're the smart one

      • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

        by Tora ( 65882 )

        @deplorableCodeMonkey's point wasn't about the actual article, it was a sound and 100% valid observation on how both parties hold double-standards.

        Doesn't matter which side you're on. If the other team does it, lamblast them. if your team does it, then keep quite and mind yourself, if not defer and distract.

        Oh hey, that's what you just did (defer/distract).

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          The same criticism applies to both Biden and Trump. Trade wars of this nature are rarely effective or beneficial for the country that starts them. They only tend to work when there is a massive economic power imbalance between the two countries, and that's not the case here. China is the world's second largest economy, with the highest growth of all the major ones, year after year.

          The way to win is to compete, and to set the bar for things like regulation of AI and data privacy. People criticise the EU's se

          • The way to win is to compete, and to set the bar for things like regulation of AI and data privacy. People criticise the EU's seemingly heavy handed regulation

            The EU's AI regulations amount to a pointless duplicative compliance racket. Every domain explicitly enumerated in "AI" regulation already has requirements and policies to deal with the issues raised in the AI regulation. The "AI" regulation applies to algorithms generally like conditional tests, feedback loops, decision trees. The only thing this will actually do is fuck over EU members from effectively competing with the rest of the world.

            As for data privacy now we are treated to a smattering of worthl

            • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              The old rules covered algorithms. AI is different because nobody knows how it makes decisions. It's a black box, and we can make inferences about it from experimentation and by looking at the training data, but you can't ask an AI why it thinks that shadow on your x-ray is benign, or who you were declined for a loan.

              Companies in other countries wanting to operate in the EU will have to adopt those rules. Export of EU data will require adoption of similar protections too, like we just say with the transatlan

              • The old rules covered algorithms. AI is different because nobody knows how it makes decisions. It's a black box, and we can make inferences about it from experimentation and by looking at the training data, but you can't ask an AI why it thinks that shadow on your x-ray is benign, or who you were declined for a loan.

                You are just spouting summaries of what you've read in the popular press. Read the text of the actual legislation. "AI" is not defined as any specific subset of technology. It covers algorithms generally as I stated before. There is no definition of "AI" limited to non-explainable bags of artificial neurons or any such systems.

                All of the covered domains already have requirements covering methodologies, testing, reliability and permissible operation. Nothing changes. You couldn't use "AI" excuse to get

        • by DarkOx ( 621550 )

          Indeed about the only group that - because they don't really have 'a side' but fall in with one or the other at various times and the populist/nationalist movement.

          They get lambasted by both wings of American politics, which makes sense because they are actually the only realistic alternative.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by nucrash ( 549705 )

      Let's break this down.
      1. Trump started a trade war which impacted American farmers with their tariffs. His approach was reckless and ill thought out but another variable was the President of the Philippines was favorable to China as opposed to the U.S. This strengthened China's position. Trump's approach had no thought on how to get out of the scenario unscathed, more of act first and deal with the consequences later.
      2. Biden's approach started with the IRA and the CHIPS act which kick started investmen

    • Contradiction and hypocrisy are always present to the simpleton.

    • by ljw1004 ( 764174 ) on Thursday August 10, 2023 @11:38AM (#63756230)

      Can't say I'm surprised because the same sort of people were shrieking "Chimpy McBushitler warmonger" at Bush and then supported virtually every single act of naked aggression by Obama and then called Trump a wimp for being a diplomacy-first President.

      The handy thing about defining a group and then attacking that group, is (1) your conclusions are guaranteed to support your prejudices, by definition; (2) you don't need to do any work to assemble data or look for evidence because your position is true by definition, rather than being falsifiable.

      Here's a start. How about you define precisely the group you're attacking ("the same sort of people"), with a precise enough definition that it will indeed satisfy the claims you make about this group, and then you gather data on how numerous that group actually is?

      • by ljw1004 ( 764174 )

        destroy any belief that even most "educated Americans" are morally fit to participate since so many are flaming hypocrites who have no principles except "my team rules, your team droolz"

        I should say, I certainly agree that I notice such flaming hypocrites. However I don't have data as to whether they comprise the majority of "educated Americans", and I'm conscious that selection bias would make any attempt on my part useless to guess their prevalence.

    • I grow tired of reading the same copy pasta bullshit from conservative nut jobs AND liberal nut jobs every single god damned day. Freedom of thought is no longer a virtue, freedom FROM thought is.
    • The Government is of the People. The reason our leaders are complete and absolute pieces of shit is because, well, that is what most Americans are.
  • Chinese investments, businesses, and their entire stock market plus their real estate market is one giant manipulated scam. Oh and their currency as well. They manipulate that illegally. So this is more of a safety warning for idiots than a brave new policy. Now how about banning Black Rock from buying up all of the US property market? Where's that law?
  • Hypocrisy (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RegistrationIsDumb83 ( 6517138 ) on Thursday August 10, 2023 @08:39AM (#63755752)
    China complaining about fair market competition when they didn't even allow US companies to sell their wares in China without a local investor.
  • That's what you get for supplying Russia's war effort on the sly.
  • Under what statute, if any, is this rule being promulgated? I happen to think it's a good idea, but I don't see that Biden has the authority to do this on his own. He can tell me where I can invest my money? The press seems to think that Biden is the Grand Mullah who can issue whatever fatwa he likes.

  • It'll be interesting to see whether this pushes more in-US tech manufacturing. Tons of classified stuff gets processed on Dells and other common brands of computer, and right now almost anything smaller than a rackmount server is being manufactured outside the US, mostly in China.

  • ... for doing similar things? It's funny how things change.
  • For many reasons, not least
    - strong dollar (comparatively)
    - weak purchasing power of the dollar in America (inflation)
    - decreasing quality of American goods (I blame unions that protect poor workers)
    - increasing quality of Chinese products
    - increasing language and business literacy in China
    - increased brand establishment and name reputation focus in China
    - Horrible American logistics (extremely expensive, often 50-100 times the cost of China)

    Everyone I talk with is buying much more Chinese and far less Amer
  • I can't imagine what could go wrong with a single government agency being responsible for reviewing vaguely defined "certain" transactions with Chinese investors. The first problem, what transactions are covered? Since we won't have a clear idea, investors will just report everything. The second problem, it's unlikely the government can keep pace. Next, the government will require investors to wait for formal approval.
  • "Those who can not adjust to change will be swept aside by it. Those who recognize change and react accordingly will benefit" --Jim Rogers (b. 1942)

This is clearly another case of too many mad scientists, and not enough hunchbacks.

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