Beijing - Saba:
Beijing on Sunday said it will take retaliatory measures against Washington in response to US tightened policies regarding investment cooperation with China.
"We have taken the current situation into consideration.. China will closely monitor the actions of the United States and take the necessary measures to protect its legitimate rights and interests," the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement, after the White House published a memorandum aimed at curbing Chinese investments in strategic American sectors.
Beijing urges the US side to abide by international investment and trade rules, respect the principle of market economy, and stop politicizing economic and trade issues and using them as a weapon, according to the statement.
The statement noted that such restrictions imposed by Washington "will further distort investment cooperation between the two countries and will not benefit the United States itself."
The US administration "overuses the concept of national security," engages in discriminatory practices, and resorts to non-market measures that severely disrupt normal economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.
China said that this would "seriously harm the confidence of Chinese companies wishing to invest in the United States," and called on Washington to provide a fair, transparent, stable, and predictable business environment for Chinese investors.
The statement warned that these restrictions and tightening controls on Chinese investments would lead to "US companies losing the Chinese market to competitors."
On Friday evening, US President Donald Trump signed a memorandum aimed at "promoting foreign investment while protecting the national security interests of the United States, especially against threats posed by foreign adversaries such as China."
The US administration accuses Beijing of "increasingly exploiting US resources to develop and modernize its military, intelligence and other security apparatuses."
The White House said the new US administration intends to call on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to "restrict Chinese investment in strategic US sectors" such as technology, critical infrastructure, health, agriculture, energy, raw materials and others.