Senior senators have ditched a controversial plan that would have made US companies’ outbound investments to China and other countries potentially subject to national security reviews, after months of lobbying by General Electric and IBM.
The move appears to clear the way for legislation on strengthening the mandate of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US to clear Congress this summer, amid bipartisan calls in Washington to increase scrutiny of Chinese investments.
It also comes as the US Treasury is preparing recommendations to create its own investment restrictions to protect strategic US sectors such as artificial intelligence and robotics from Chinese ownership. That move is part of a broader investigation into Beijing’s alleged systematic theft of US intellectual property launched by the Trump administration that has raised trade tension with China.