(Republicaninformer.com)- Last week, President Biden extended for the second time a Trump-era national emergency that prohibits US companies or individuals from investing in companies linked to the Chinese military.
Former President Trump initially issued Executive Order 13959 in November 2020, citing threats to US national security. This order declared a national emergency halting investments in companies with ties to the Chinese military.
In June 2021, President Biden expanded on Trump’s order when he signed Executive Order 14032, prohibiting US investments in companies linked, not just to China’s military, but also its surveillance industries.
Last week’s Executive Order extends the national emergency regarding the Chinese military and surveillance industries by one year, beyond its previously scheduled expiration date of November 12.
In the White House statement announcing the extension, Biden warned that China is “increasingly exploiting United States capital” to resource and enable “the development and modernization of its military, intelligence, and other security apparatuses.” By doing so, China can continue to threaten the US homeland and its forces overseas, the statement said.
Biden stated that China’s “military-industrial complex” constitutes “an unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security, foreign policy, and the US economy.
Biden explained that the order was necessary since China’s national strategy of “military-civil fusion” requires China’s civilian companies “to directly contribute to the regime’s military and intelligence activities.”
That being the case, the statement adds, these civilian companies must be treated as part of the Chinese “military and intelligence apparatus” and the US must limit their “ability to interact with U.S. markets.”
While the companies ostensibly remain “private and civilian,” the statement said, they are directly supporting China’s “military, intelligence, and security apparatuses” while simultaneously raising capital by selling securities to investors in the United States, trading on public exchanges both in the US and abroad, and “engaging in other acts to ensure access to United States capital.”
