Communications of the ACM
Biden Issues New Order to Block Chinese Investment in Technology in the U.S.
President Biden’s order is significant for microelectronics, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and more.
Credit: Patrick T. Fallon/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
President Biden signed an executive order on Thursday designed to sharpen the federal government's 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 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.
From The New York Times
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