Move follows Trump’s order prohibiting US investment in Chinese companies allegedly linked to the Chinese military.
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is beginning the deletion process of three Chinese telecommunications companies, China Telecom Corporation Limited, China Mobile Limited and China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited, it said in a statement.
The move comes after US President Donald Trump unveiled an executive order in November banning US investments in Chinese companies that Washington says are owned or controlled by the Chinese military, which could affect some of China’s largest companies.
The November executive order sought to dig into a 1999 law requiring the Ministry of Defense to compile a list of Chinese military companies. The Pentagon, which only fulfilled the mandate this year, has appointed 35 companies so far, including oil company CNOOC Ltd and China’s top chip maker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.
Each of the telecommunications companies listed by the NYSE is also listed in Hong Kong.
NYSE said the issuers were no longer eligible for listing as the injunction prohibits all transactions in securities “intended to provide exposure to such securities of a Communist Chinese military company by a person from the United States.”
NYSE said it would suspend trading on Jan. 7 or Jan. 11. The issuers are entitled to a review of the decision.
The ties between Washington and Beijing have become increasingly antagonistic over the past year as the two largest economies in the world discussed Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, the imposition of a national security law in Hong Kong and mounting tensions in the South. -Chinese Sea.