President Biden blocked Nippon’s acquisition of U.S. Steel under Section 721 of the Defense Production Act, a law born of opposition to a Japanese investment decades ago. The case offers an opportunity to challenge the President’s Section 721 authority, and limits of judicial review.
MassPoint Principal Hdeel Abdelhady analyzes Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel’s CFIUS challenge in Law360, examining key questions of presidential authority to prohibit foreign investment on national security grounds.
China’s restrictions on rare earths processing technology exports take a page from the U.S. export controls playbook.
The imposition of Global Magnitsky anti-corruption sanctions on two Cambodian related to the Ream Naval Base is strategically significant in the context of U.S. concerns about China’s activities and influence in Cambodia.
Hdeel Abdelhady’s recent article on the Strategic Competition Act’s proposed expansion of CFIUS’ jurisdiction to foreign funding of U.S. colleges and universities is available at Law360.
Several pieces of legislation are pending in Congress to more comprehensively shore up the U.S. position in the U.S.-China technology race. The Strategic Competition Act of 2021 illustrates clearly the official U.S. view of academia’s role in the U.S.-China technology race, and the links between U.S. policies and legal measures to regulate foreign access to U.S. science and technology within and across the private, public, and academic sectors.
With the passage of the NDAA for FY 2021, we are reminded that the United States views as an issue of “great power competition” China’s financial and infrastructure diplomacy, particularly China’s lending to developing nations and its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Congress provided a reminder of the United States’ concerns as to China’s cross-border lending and the BRI. The massive annual defense spending legislation includes two provisions directly on point.
After the 2016 Presidential election, MassPoint PLLC published five issues to watch in 2017 (and beyond). We revisit our predictions on the five issues, which we expect to remain watch-worthy under the Biden Administration.
The United States has targted a Belt& Road project with Global Magnitsky Sanctions. The move is significant, and might signal a ratcheting up of U.S. opposition to the BRI, which has largely comprised rhetoric, diplomatic lobbying, and relatively tepid competition, such as by the establishment of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).