Recently, the "black hand" of the United States has frequently extended to Chinese companies.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security recently conducted a raid on the Ohio-based U.S. subsidiary of Qingdao Sanxiang Technology Co., Ltd., a Chinese auto parts manufacturer, according to a report by Huanqiu.com. Previously, the company had been accused of "evading U.S. tariffs."
At the same time, the U.S. Congress is busy banning the Pentagon from purchasing batteries from six Chinese companies, and on the other hand, it has sent a letter to the Swiss group ABB asking it to explain its business dealings with Chinese state-owned enterprises while cooperating with U.S. government agencies.
After making positive statements to China, the US side has frequently backtracked. In December 2023, the U.S. Department of Commerce said that in order to "protect the national security of the United States", the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security will begin a review of how U.S. companies purchase Chinese-made semiconductors in January 2024.
It is worth noting that the successive actions of the US side coincided with the primary election of the domestic general election.
"This is an election year, and a series of U.S. foreign policies may be distorted or distorted. It is not new for the two parties to talk about China and play the 'China card' in a big way. Liu Ying, director of the cooperative research department of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies of Chinese University, said in an interview with the governor of Chang'an Street (WeChat ID: Capitalnews) that at present, Chinese enterprises must calm down, be prepared to resist risks, build firewalls, and fasten their "seat belts" in the face of fluctuations.
On the 18th local time, investigators from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security conducted a search of the Harco Manufacturing Group in Dayton, Ohio, for about 5 hours.
In 2015, the group was acquired by Qingdao Sanxiang Technology Holdings. In September 2023, members of the U.S. House of Representatives' Select Committee on U.S.-China Strategic Competition sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, accusing Sanxiang Technology of transferring some of its production to Thailand in order to evade U.S. tariffs.
In the letter, the committee members claimed that the company's products were subject to a 25 percent U.S. import tariff on certain categories of Chinese-made goods, and that it had accelerated production in Thailand to reduce the cost of the tariffs, and that Sanxiang Technology had "seriously violated U.S. law and harmed U.S. economic and national security by using a company in the U.S. to evade U.S. tariffs."
Not only Sanxiang Technology, but also the batteries produced by six other Chinese companies also "threaten" the so-called "national security" of the United States.
According to the Global Times, according to the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2024 passed by the United States at the end of last year, the U.S. Department of Defense will be banned from purchasing batteries from six Chinese companies, including CATL, BYD, Envision Energy, EVE Lithium Energy, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, and Haichen Energy Storage. The ban will come into effect in October 2027.
This is also seen as an attempt by the US Congress to further push the "decoupling" of the Department of Defense supply chain from China.
Among the world's top ten battery suppliers, Chinese companies account for 7. In December, Republican U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, claiming that using batteries made by Chinese companies would increase "security risks."
"It can be seen that many of the Chinese companies currently on the US sanctions list are world-class enterprises with the largest market share in the global market. Liu Ying pointed out that in the past five years, the U.S. has launched a scientific and technological war against China that has intensified, and the walls of the small courtyard have become higher and higher, and after Biden took office, he gradually turned to the so-called "de-risking", but the essence of "decoupling and breaking the chain" with China and rallying allies to deal with China has not changed, and this series of operations is also a typical manifestation of the "long-arm jurisdiction" of the United States.
However, the stretched black hand cannot stop the general trend of foreign companies exploring cooperation opportunities with China. Previously, CATL had accepted a cooperation invitation from Ford to provide preparatory and operation services for its battery plant in Michigan, and to license the patented battery technology.
At the same time, local governments in the United States are also giving the green light to battery projects with Chinese participation. According to reports, the Mississippi legislature passed a bill on the 18th to provide $482 million in incentives for the construction of a $1.9 billion electric vehicle battery plant in Marshall County, the state, of which China-based EVE will hold a 10% stake in the project.
However, just as foreign companies are voting with their feet, the United States is reaching out to multinational companies.
According to reports, two committees of the U.S. House of Representatives recently launched a review of the Swiss ABB group, citing the discovery of equipment produced by ABB on the container crane shipped by Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries to the United States. The two commissions want to investigate "cybersecurity risks, foreign intelligence-gathering threats, and supply chain weaknesses" that U.S. seaports may face.
In fact, as early as March 2023, the "Select Committee on China" of the House of Representatives of the United States set its sights on Chinese heavy cranes erected in many parts of the United States, including several military ports, and said that they could play a "spy role" and "provide China with a tool to disrupt the flow of U.S. trade."
Subsequently, in July last year, the commission opened an investigation into the alleged "risk" to the United States that the software and equipment provided by the company to Zhenhua Heavy Industries.
As a party concerned, the subsequent response of the Swiss ABB Group tore apart the ugly face of the US side that was created out of nothing.
ABB Group said its crane software technology is vendor-independent and is installed on cranes made by major crane manufacturers, including Chinese companies, that are purchased by U.S. ports from China and other companies, not from ABB.
As the world's leading supplier of electrical and automation systems, ABB provides standardized electrical and automation software and hardware for cranes used in ports around the world, including the United States.
In other words, ABB's operations comply with all relevant U.S. regulations, and the "risk" that the U.S. side is concerned about does not exist at all, and the scrutiny is nothing more than an attempt to add to the crime.
"It seems that the paranoia of the victimization of politicians in the United States is getting worse and worse. On the 22nd, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin asked three rhetorical questions about this matter at a regular press conference, "Why do you blindly accuse 'China-related companies of threatening US national security' without any evidence? Why does the spearhead of US national security threats always point to China's leading companies in all walks of life? Why do other countries coerce other countries to block relevant Chinese companies even though they do not feel that Chinese products pose a threat?"
Just as Wang Wenbin said, for these American politicians, whatever China is advanced and whatever is a threat, all measures must be taken to suppress it, and only the shirts and socks exported by China do not pose a threat to the United States. What US politicians have done is nothing but naked bullying and bullying.
"Don't be affected by the so-called pan-national security of the United States, continue to maintain strategic focus, talk about business, and not be disturbed by the pan-politicization and pan-security of the United States. Liu Ying believes that at a time when the United States is in political turmoil, Chinese enterprises going overseas should strengthen the construction of independent intellectual property rights and scientific and technological capabilities, take up legal weapons to actively respond, and use some international mechanisms to strive for a more fair and reasonable economic and trade order.
(Interviewee Liu Ying is the director of the cooperative research department of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies of Chinese People's University, this article is transferred from the WeChat public account of the governor of Chang'an Street on January 23, welcome to follow the Chongyang Weibo @人大重yang, WeChat rdcy2013)