A defense spending bill signed into law Thursday (Dec. 18) by President Donald Trump reportedly includes provisions that restrict United States investment in Chinese tech firms.<\/p>\n
The National Defense Authorization Act<\/a>\u2019s outbound-investment provisions enable the White House to monitor and, in some cases, prohibit U.S. investments in Chinese companies working on artificial intelligence, quantum computing and advanced semiconductors, The Wall Street Journal reported<\/a> Thursday (Dec. 18).<\/p>\n The law allows the White House to ban some deals and require companies to report others, according to the report.<\/p>\n Before being signed into law by the president, the National Defense Authorization Act was passed<\/a> by the House on a vote of 312 to 112 and by the Senate on a vote of 77 to 20, according to Congress.gov.<\/p>\n The legislation\u2019s sponsor, Sen. John Cornyn<\/a> of Texas said in a Wednesday (Dec. 17) press release<\/a>, before the bill was signed into law, that the outbound investment measures present \u201ca generational opportunity to confront the threats China, Iran, North Korea and others pose to our national and economic security. This landmark legislation would prohibit and require notification of U.S. investments in certain technologies in countries of concern, ensuring American ingenuity, innovation and investment do not end up in the hands of adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party to be weaponized against us.\u201d<\/p>\n