Teknoku.me – US officials have finally agreed to cancel a ban on investment activities from US citizens to Jack Ma’s giant technology company, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
The news was conveyed by an insider close to this issue, as compiled by Bloomberg.
According to the source, US officials have also lifted a ban on investing in another Chinese company, namely Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Baidu Inc.
As a result of this news, the shares of Alibaba and Tencent in Hong Kong together increased, respectively 3.9 percent and 5 percent.
The decision to lift the investment ban has become a bright spot regarding the uncertainty of the fate of the three Chinese companies in the US.
This is because, in the early weeks of January, Alibaba and Tencent were reportedly potentially included in the US blacklist.
This blacklist was originally filled with companies that were allegedly supported or controlled by the Chinese military. This blacklist was issued by President Donald Trump in November 2020.
If a company is blacklisted, US citizens are prohibited from investing in that company. US investors who have already purchased shares are given time to divest their shares.
In pre-market trading, US-listed shares of Tencent fell 2.8 percent and Alibaba lost a little.
The US government’s plan to ban investment in Chinese companies is not the first. Trump often issues orders to prohibit the use or investment of companies from the country of the bamboo curtain.
For example, in the early week of January 2021, Trump signed an order to ban eight Chinese-made applications, including AliPay and WeChat Pay, CamScanner, QQ Wallet, SHAREit, Tencent QQ, VMate, and WPS Office, as well as applications belonging to their subsidiaries.
Not only that, but Trump earlier this year also planned to remove (delist) the largest global telecommunications provider from China.
Responding to a series of discourses on prohibiting investment and operations of Chinese companies in the US, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian opposed the plan.
“China opposes political economic and trade issues and abuses state power and national security concepts to suppress foreign companies,” said Chinese Zhao Lijian.
Zhao urged the US to respect the principles of a market economy and provide a fair, impartial, and transparent business environment for foreign companies.