Trump ties Biden’s hands with new China sanctions

Donald Trump looks to box in his successor with an escalation of his diplomatic and economic offensive against Beijing.

President Trump is to blacklist two of China’s most influential companies as he looks to box in his successor by escalating his diplomatic and economic offensive against Beijing.

China National Offshore Oil Corporation, the state-owned oil company, and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), the country’s biggest maker of chips for the technology industry, are to be sanctioned over alleged links to the military.

Mr Trump, 74, has vowed that China will “pay a big price” for the coronavirus outbreak as new American cases continue to break records. The president is trying to recast the trading relationship that he has called “the greatest theft in the history of the world”.

An artesian well flat of China National Offshore Oil Corp.

China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) Chairman Fu Chengyu speaks to reporters. Picture: Bloomberg News.

The sanctions would bring the number of designated Chinese companies to 35. China National Offshore Oil Corporpation is one of China’s most familiar commercial names overseas and has joint ventures with Royal Dutch Shell and shared projects with Exxon. The order prohibits US investment in the black-listed companies from November next year.

The move is seen as an attempt to cement Mr Trump’s legacy as a China hawk. The Biden campaign declined to comment and the incoming president’s approach to Beijing remains unclear.

Reuters reported last week that the Trump administration was close to declaring that 89 Chinese companies have military ties, restricting them from buying a range of US goods.

Beijing sanctioned four people working for US organisations allegedly linked to pro-democracy movements in Hong Kong. In August China sanctioned 11 US officials with “egregious records on Hong Kong affairs”. The US retaliated last month with sanctions on four officials from the Chinese central government and pro-Beijing Hong Kong government.

SMIC said that its products and services were solely for civilian and commercial use. “The company has no relationship with the Chinese military and does not manufacture for any military end-users or end-uses,” it said.

Meanwhile Mr Biden, 78, announced his senior economic team, including the nomination of Janet Yellen, former head of the Federal Reserve, to run the Treasury. He nominated Neera Tanden, an adviser to Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, to lead the Office of Management and Budget; Wally Adeyemo, a former Obama administration official and the first chief executive of the former president’s foundation, as his nominee for deputy treasury secretary; and Cecilia Rouse, Jared Bernstein and Heather Boushey to his economic team.

Ms Yellen, 74, would be the first woman to lead the Treasury Department and Mr Adeyemo, 39, the first black deputy secretary. Ms Tanden, 50, born to Indian immigrants, would be the first woman from an ethnic minority in her role and Ms Rouse, 56, the first black woman to chair the Council of Economic Advisers. Mr Biden and Kamala Harris, the incoming vice-president, had announced an all-female communications team on Sunday.

Ms Tanden, head of the liberal Center for American Progress think tank and policy director for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, faces opposition from Senate Republicans. The party holds a two-seat majority but the final make-up of the Senate will be decided by two run-off elections in Georgia next month.

Josh Holmes, a political adviser to the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, tweeted that confirmation was probably doomed.

Tony Blinken, Mr Biden’s nominee for secretary of state, is likely to face Senate questions over any ties he has with China after Westexec, a consultancy he co-founded, removed language stating that it helps clients to “reduce risk associated with operations in China”. Avril Haines, the nominee for national intelligence director, also worked for the company.

Yesterday (Monday) Mr Biden and Ms Harris received their first highly classified presidential daily briefing, a summary of the most important information collected by US intelligence.

The state of Wisconsin finished a recount of its presidential results, paid for at a cost of dollars 3 million by the Trump campaign, which confirmed Mr Biden’s victory with an extra 87 votes, extending his majority of 20,000. Mr Trump had promised legal action even before the recount concluded.

In a further blow to Mr Trump’s hopes of overturning his defeats in swing states, Arizona’s secretary of state, Katie Hobbs, certified its results on Monday to confirm Mr Biden’s narrow victory. Ms Hobbs, a Democrat, was joined at the certification by two key Republicans: Doug Ducey, the governor, and Mark Brnovich, the Attorney-General. Mr Brnovich defended the integrity of Arizona’s election against his own party’s claims of widespread fraud, saying that his office had investigated and found no evidence.

The Times