Special legislation edition: Spate of new curbs on China business in US and Europe's regulator pipelines -- China Boss News 9.19.22
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Spate of new curbs on China business in US and Europe's regulator pipelines
This week’s special edition of China Boss is devoted to new US and European regulations in the works or already issued which are bound to impact China business. There’s plenty to talk about, so let’s get started.
Semiconductors
Reuters recently reported that Biden will soon “broaden curbs on U.S shipments to China of semiconductors used for artificial intelligence and chipmaking tools.” The regulations are "based on restrictions communicated in letters” to several American semiconductor manufacturers, and “codify restrictions in Commerce Department letters sent to Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O) . . . instructing them to halt shipments of several artificial intelligence computing chips to China unless they obtain licenses," Reuters’ sources said. The sources also said “the regulations would likely include additional actions against China.”
Reuters:
So-called "is informed" letters allow the Commerce Department to bypass lengthy rule-writing processes to put controls in place quickly, but the letters only apply to the companies that receive them.
Turning the letters into rules would broaden their reach and could subject other U.S. companies producing similar technology to the restrictions. The regulations could potentially apply to companies trying to challenge Nvidia and AMD's dominance in artificial intelligence chips.
Chinese investment in US tech
The Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) will get “new powers to block Chinese investment in technology in the United States and limit its access to private data on citizens, in a move that is bound to heighten tensions with Beijing,” the New York Times said
The new order is designed to focus the actions of the secretive Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States, created by Congress nearly a half-century ago. For years the committee’s powers were limited largely to blocking the foreign acquisition of American firms that might have a direct impact on national security — a military contractor, for example.
But the most far-reaching part of Mr. Biden’s new order, and potentially the most important element in coming months, directs the committee to consider whether a pending deal involves the purchase of a business with access to Americans’ sensitive data, and whether a foreign company or government could exploit that information.
CFIUS “is believed to be already scrutinizing TikTok, the popular Chinese-owned video app that critics worry could expose its users’ data to the Chinese government,” the Times said.
EU’s proposed ban on forced labor products
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