China has vehemently objected to U.S. President Joe Biden’s expansion of a list of Chinese companies whose shares are off-limits to American investors. The executive order issued late Thursday nearly doubled the number of companies subject to the ban. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson says Beijing will take unspecified “necessary measures” to protect the rights and interests of Chinese companies. The new executive order expanded a list first announced by Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, to 59 companies from 31. It targets investments in shares of Chinese defense and surveillance technology firms that the U.S. says take part in surveillance of religious and ethnic minorities, repression or “serious human rights abuses.”
