China said this weekend it was prepared to respond to a “discriminatory” United States presidential order restricting Chinese investment in critical American technology and infrastructure.
On Saturday, President Donald Trump signed an “America First Investment Policy” memorandum ordering the US to “use all necessary legal instruments” to block Chinese-affiliated investments in American “technology, critical infrastructure, healthcare, agriculture, energy, raw materials or other strategic sectors”.
Those tools included the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which reviews whether investments from overseas affect US national security.
Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.
China’s Ministry of Commerce responded by saying the measures were “very unreasonable”.
“It is discriminatory. It is a typical non-market practice that seriously affects the normal economic and trade cooperation between the companies of the two countries.
“If implemented, [the order] would further distort the investment exchanges between the two countries and bring no benefit to the US itself,” the commerce ministry said on Saturday.
“China will closely monitor the [American] moves and take necessary measures to defend its legitimate rights and interests.”
The memorandum said China had been targeting the “crown jewels” of US technology – including food supplies, farmland, minerals, natural resources, ports, and shipping terminals – in “diverse ways, both visible and concealed”.
The order said: “[China] does not allow United States companies to take over their critical infrastructure, and the United States should not allow [China] to take over United States critical infrastructure.”
It added that Washington would also use “legal instruments” to deter American investment in China’s military-industrial sector, and accused Beijing of exploiting US capital to develop and modernise its military, intelligence and other security apparatuses.
The Chinese commerce ministry said the US order “generalises the concept of national security” and warned that tightening security reviews would “seriously undermine” corporate confidence in investing in the United States in future.
It urged Washington to provide a “fair, transparent, stable and predictable business environment” for Chinese companies to invest in the country.
“Many American business associations and companies have proposed that US investment restrictions on China will cause American companies to give up the Chinese market to other competitors,” the ministry said.
“China urges the US to abide by international investment and trade rules, respect the laws of the market economy, and stop politicising and weaponising economic and trade issues. China will closely monitor the developments of the United States and take necessary measures to defend our legitimate rights and interests.”
The order from Trump came just hours after Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng told US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that Beijing had “serious concerns” about American tariffs and other restrictions that targeted Chinese goods.
During the video call with He, Bessent expressed Washington’s own concerns about China’s economic policies and efforts to control the flow of narcotics.
Earlier this month, Trump ordered the imposition of 10 per cent tariffs on Chinese goods entering the United States. Beijing responded with an announcement that it would impose its own punitive tariffs of 10 to 15 per cent on some US products.
(FILES) US President Donald Trump signs an executive order for pardons on January 6 offenders in the Oval Office of the WHite House in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025. They’re ugly, ruin the landscape and kill whales: Donald Trump accuses wind turbines of all sorts of evils and plunged their industry into turmoil as soon as he returned to the White House. We’re not going to do the windmill thing, the American president launched on January 20, the day of his inauguration, before digressing on the subject. They kill birds and ruin beautiful landscapes, they’re all made in China and if you like whales, you don’t want wind turbines either, said the Republican, before signing a series of executive orders at the end of the day to put a spanner in the industry’s works. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) alt=(FILES) US President Donald Trump signs an executive order for pardons on January 6 offenders in the Oval Office of the WHite House in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025. They’re ugly, ruin the landscape and kill whales: Donald Trump accuses wind turbines of all sorts of evils and plunged their industry into turmoil as soon as he returned to the White House. We’re not going to do the windmill thing, the American president launched on January 20, the day of his inauguration, before digressing on the subject. They kill birds and ruin beautiful landscapes, they’re all made in China and if you like whales, you don’t want wind turbines either, said the Republican, before signing a series of executive orders at the end of the day to put a spanner in the industry’s works. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP)>
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 2025. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
