Several points on Donald Trump’s agenda, from relations with Russia to Afghanistan’s strategy and the wall with Mexico, have been normalized by its administration in recent months. But the hard punch against China and its competition is a promise that the Tycoon wants to keep at all costs in front of its voters.
After an uncertain start with the meeting with Xi Jinping in the Mara-Lake resort in April, relations became more doubtful. The 100-day plan did not bear fruit, and while in August US anti-dumping duty of 24 percent on Chinese steel, the president escalated trade war against Beijing, which in his own words did little or nothing to stop the nuclear tests of North Korea.
On Wednesday, the US president again attacked the Beijing government as he exercised a right to use the Foreign Investment and National Security Act which allows the White House to block foreign trade transactions if considered a danger to national security. So the $1.3 billion deal with which the consortium formed by Canyon Bridge Capital Partners LLC , a Chinese-funded Chinese group, Yitai Capital Limited and China Venture Capital Fund, believed it could buy Lattice Semiconductor Corp., went into smoke.
This is the third deal by Chinese companies in the States that was stopped this year by the Trump administration. Haikou, the HNA Group, had not been lucky enough to buy Global Eagle Entertainment or the holding of Shenzen TCL Multimedia Technology to invest in the American Inseego Corp’s. Both had been blocked by the committee. The same fate could have been met by Chinese automaker Great Wall which was reportedly interested in buying Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ Jeep brand.
The Lattice Semiconductor crashes on Wall Street by more than 2.7%, which now has 90 days to abandon the deal.
“Consistent with the administration’s commitment to take all actions necessary to ensure the protection of U.S. national security, the president issued an order prohibiting the acquisition,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.
“Conducting security checks on a sensitive investment is a nation’s legitimate right, but it shouldn’t be used as a protectionist tool,” Ministry of Commerce spokesman Gao Feng said.
