The writer is executive director of American Compass
Last week, officials briefing reporters on President Joe Biden’s long-awaited executive order restricting American investment in China used the words “narrow” and “narrowly” no fewer than 10 times in half an hour. They emphasised that new rules would reach just three “national security sensitive technologies”: advanced semiconductors, quantum computing and artificial intelligence.
The rules will apply only to the “subset” of technologies in those three categories that are “specifically designed for military or intelligence end-uses” and only to particular categories of private investment such as venture capital, private equity and joint ventures.