Q: In the early morning of August 10, Beijing time, US President Biden signed the executive order on setting up screening mechanism on outbound investments and restricting US entities’ investments in the semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies, and artificial intelligence sectors in China. What’s China’s comment?

A: China strongly deplores and firmly opposes the US’s single-minded rollout of restrictions on investments in China. We have made serious démarche to the US.

Restricting US companies’ investments in China with national security as a front is a clear act of overstretching the concept of security and politicizing business engagement. The move’s real aim is to deprive China of its right to develop and selfishly pursue US supremacy at the expense of others. This is blatant economic coercion and tech bullying, an act that seriously violates the principles of market economy and fair competition, undermines the international economic and trading order, destabilizes global industrial and supply chains and hurts the interests of both China and the US and the global business community. This is de-globalization and a move to phase China out.

President Biden committed to not seeking to “decouple” from China or halt China’s economic development. We urge the US to follow through on that commitment, stop politicizing, instrumentalizing and weaponizing tech and trade issues, immediately cancel the wrong decisions, remove the restrictions on investments in China and create an enabling environment for China-US business cooperation. China will follow the developments closely and resolutely safeguard our rights and interests.