China Is the Top Foreign Investor in U.S. Firms Critical to National Security

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.defenseone.com/threats/2013/12/china-top-foreign-investor-us-firms-critical-national-security/75899/

By Tim Fernholz
Quartz
December 23, 2013

China overtook the United Kingdom last year as the country that received 
the most scrutiny of its US investments, according to the US government.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) is charged with 
reviewing mergers, acquisitions, and other transactions where a foreign 
entity might take control of a US firm that makes “critical technology,” 
provides services to the government or military, accesses classified 
information, or might otherwise provide malicious actors with some way to 
hurt the US.

Since 2010, CFIUS has reviewed 318 proposed transactions, most of which 
were in the manufacturing sector; 40 were withdrawn after reviews began. 
President Obama only weighed in on one decision, terminating a transaction 
where a Chinese-controlled corporation could build a wind farm near a US 
naval weapons research facility. The increase in attention to China likely 
reflects growing investment, not a pattern of targeting sensitive 
businesses, the declassified report suggests. But it is notable that among 
the top ten economies investing in firms covered by CFIUS, China is the 
only one that is not explicitly a US ally.

[...]

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