An amendment passed by the United States' House of Representatives excluding all companies owned by or affiliated to the Chinese government from U.S. defence deals violated international trade rules and reflected the U.S.' “cold war mentality”, said Chinese analysts on Friday.
U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro said the measure, passed in may, “will help guard American interests, not only for our national security, but also the innovation, job creation and long-term economic growth across the country that will allow the U.S. to remain competitive globally”.
However, Chinese analysts said the ban showed America's growing unease over China's expanding national strength and concern over the loss of its predominant status in the world.
Gu Guoliang, director of the Arms Control and Non-proliferation Center of the Institute of American Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the U.S. move was the latest demonstration of its “cold war mentality” and was not beneficial to bilateral relations.
“The global financial crisis has made the U.S. too politically sensitive,” said Zhang Yansheng, director of the Research Institute of Foreign Economic Relations of the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planning agency. Mr. Zhang said the U.S. should separate critical deals from its numerous defence contracts and ban other countries' companies from receiving them, while allowing less important projects to be opened to bids from other nations.
“Barring Chinese state-owned firms from providing defence-related goods to the U.S. amounts to protectionism,” he said.
In recent years, the U.S. has blocked several Chinese investments on national security grounds.
In 2008, Huawei Technologies' $2.2-billion offer to network equipment manufacturer 3Com collapsed because of “national security risks”. Its proposed acquisition of the technology company 3Leaf was thwarted in 2010 over claims that 3Leaf's assets would be diverted. Also last year, the U.S. blocked Huawei's bid to supply telecommunications equipment to wireless carrier Sprint Nextel.
The U.S. had promised to lift the ban on high-tech exports to China during the China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue held in May, and had also agreed to speed up the process of recognising China's market economy status.
However, the amendment was welcomed by some representatives. Frank Wolf, a sponsor of the amendment, said Chinese companies that had sought to compete for defence deals in the past were “very much arms of Beijing and the PLA”.
“His claim is groundless and a frame-up,” said Li Shuisheng, an analyst from the Chinese Academy of Military Science.
“The U.S. should remove politics from economic issues. Otherwise, bilateral political mutual trust and cooperation will be undermined,” Mr. Li noted, adding that the amendment signalled America's reluctance to strengthening bilateral military exchanges.
