14 DAY TRIAL // China is reportedly planning to go after a series of American companies, including Apple, Qualcomm, Boeing, and others, in an attempt to seek revenge after Huawei was banned and hit with more sanctions by the United States government.
A report from the Global Times indicates that China wants to create a so-called “unreliable entity list” that would include foreign companies, such as Apple.
The plan is to also announce a series of restrictions on these companies, while also starting investigations that could eventually affect their operations. The investigations would be based on the Cybersecurity Review Measures and Anti-monopoly Law, albeit for now, it’s not yet clear if any companies are prone to fines or other sanctions under this set of rules.
“Endless investigations”
Furthermore, China wants to stop the acquisition of Boeing airplanes, the source revealed via people familiar with the plans.
“China will launch rounds of endless investigations on those firms, just like swords hanging over their head. It will dampen investors' confidence and squeeze their income in the Chinese market,” a source close to the matter told the Global Times. “It will also inflict a chain reaction on various upstream and downstream players in US chip production.”
The United States first banned Huawei from working with American companies in mid-May 2019, but earlier this month, President Donald Trump extended the restrictions for one more year. Furthermore, US officials have tried to block shipments of semiconductors to the Chinese tech giants from all companies building chips.
This is believed to be the reason China is now trying to respond with these aggressive investigations, but for now, the Beijing government might be waiting to see if the United States goes forward with these sanctions before giving its go-ahead for the retaliation plan.
It goes without saying that none of the companies possibly targeted by China’s unreliable entity list” commented on the report.