A key point of Beijing's development plan is to help Chinese companies emerge as global leaders in their respective industries by cooperating with foreign companies or acquiring overseas technology. These companies are the targets of expected U.S. actions.
Louis Kuijs, director of the Asia Economics Department at Oxford Economics, said in a report: “The tariffs and investment restrictions planned by the United States are intended to hit China in response to the U.S. It is regarded as unfair technology and intellectual property practices. "
"The most important one seems to be to slow down the transfer of technology to China," said Christopher Li, chief Chinese corporate rating expert at S&P Global. Lee) said.
The Office of the United States Trade Representative has listed "aerospace, information and communications technology, and machinery" as industries that will be subject to tariffs. More details are expected to be released in early April, but the White House has already mentioned some Chinese companies by name in a 200-page report as examples of how "unfair" competition from China is hurting the United States. According to the US report, the following companies pose the greatest threat to the United States:
Midea Group
Although the home appliance manufacturer Midea Group is not a state-owned enterprise, it is built in China Midea plays an important role in the plan for a globally competitive robotics industry. In 2016, Midea spent US$4.2 billion to acquire Kuka, one of Germany's top robotics groups.
The U.S. government considers Midea to be an example of a private Chinese conglomerate that appears to be implementing some aspects of Beijing's development policies. Midea has obtained hundreds of millions of dollars in loans from multiple policy banks to support its acquisition projects.
According to the U.S. Trade Office, China Exim Bank, one of the lending institutions, said, “The implementation of this project will help optimize the layout of China’s robot industry and promote multi-industry production automation. process to improve China’s intelligent manufacturing technology level.”
ChemChina
In early 2016, the state-owned ChemChina announced that it would spend US$44 billion to acquire Switzerland’s Syngenta, one of the world’s largest pesticide and seed groups. The move attracted worldwide attention. The deal is in line with Beijing's policy to control a range of technologies to ensure food security and modernize agriculture.
The U.S. Trade Office has noted that the deal, which is partly backed by state-owned banks, puts "4,000 employees, 33 research sites, and 31 production and supply sites" in the United States at the mercy of a single company. under the control of Beijing-based conglomerates.
This acquisition also puts U.S. pesticide manufacturers such as DowDuPont and Monsanto into direct competition with the Chinese government, making the global reach that China Chemical Industry will form become a target of U.S. tariffs. A major goal.
CRRC Corp
CRRC and other Chinese state-owned railway groups are joint ventures with global industry leaders such as Bombardier and Siemens main beneficiary. CRRC is currently the world's largest railway rolling stock manufacturer.
In addition to supplying China's rapidly expanding high-speed rail and subway systems, CRRC has also entered the U.S. market in recent years and won contracts to supply subway trains to Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia.
CRRC has so far exported products from China, but the company's first U.S. factory in Springfield, Massachusetts, will soon begin production. CRRC said the factory is an example of "win-win" cooperation between the United States and China.
The White House has listed Chinese railway products as the target of tariffs, but the U.S. Trade Office’s report did not mention CRRC’s name.
Comac and Aviation Industry Corporation of China (Avic)
The two Chinese state-owned aircraft manufacturing groups are trying to disrupt the dominance of Boeing and Airbus. monopoly in the passenger aircraft market and turned China into an aviation manufacturing power.
The C919 passenger aircraft, which is intended to compete with the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320, is still in the early testing stage and will take several years to be put into mass production. But analysts believe that the C919 will eventually be able to take away market share from the two dominant players, especially in China.