China on Saturday slammed the United States (U.S.) following New York Stock Exchange’s (NYSE) decision to delist three Chinese telecom companies and vowed to take necessary measures to protect Chinese “enterprises’ legitimate rights.”
The NYSE had on Friday said it would delist three Chinese companies to comply with a U.S. executive order that imposed restrictions on companies identified as affiliated with the Chinese military.
The three companies are China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom Hong Kong.
They will be delisted between January 7 and January 11 and proceedings to delist them have started, according to a statement by the NYSE.
Chinese Ministry of Commerce called it a U.S.’ practice of abusing national security and using state power to crack down on Chinese enterprises, the Chinese state media, Global Times, reported.
“China opposes the U.S. practice of abusing national security to include Chinese enterprises on the list of so-called ‘Communist Chinese military companies.’
“China will take necessary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises,” China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.
“The practice of abusing national security and using state power to crack down on Chinese enterprises is not in line with market rules and logic.
”This harms not only the legitimate rights of Chinese enterprises, but also the interests of investors in other countries, including the U.S.,” the Chinese Commerce Ministry said in the statement.
It added that the U.S’. move will seriously undermine confidence in the U.S. capital market.
Earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump on November 12 had signed an executive order that prohibits Americans from investing in 31 firms.
The order prohibits U.S. investors from buying and selling shares in a list of Chinese companies designated by the Pentagon as having military ties.
The executive order has resulted in a series of companies being removed from indexes compiled by MSCI, S&P Dow Jones Global Indices and FTSE Russell, reported SCMP.
Following the steps of the U.S. and Japan, the Taiwanese Economic Affairs Ministry on Wednesday too tightened control over Chinese investments due to national security concerns.
Based on new regulations that came into effect from Wednesday, Chinese military-owned companies and Chinese Communist Party-owned companies were banned from investing in Taiwan.
