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Biden bans U.S. investment in companies linked to China's surveillance activities

03 June 2021
 Dan Ackermann

President Joe Biden issued an executive order Thursday that would ban Americans from investing in companies linked to China's military and its surveillance activities.

Why it matters: Biden's executive order is an expansion of one issued by the Trump administration in November 2020, and shows that the Biden administration "continuing some of the hard-line China policies left by former President Donald Trump," according to the Wall Street Journal.

The big picture: The Trump administration's executive order banned Americans from investing in 31 companies linked to the Chinese government.

  • Biden's executive order expands on the order, listing 59 companies and includes Chinese technology firms that make or deploy surveillance technology, which contribute to the "surveillance of religious or ethnic minorities or otherwise facilitate repression and serious human rights abuses," per the White House press release.
  • The goal of the executive order is to "ensure that U.S. investments are not supporting Chinese companies that undermine the security or values of the United States and our allies," per the release.
  • The ban will take effect on August 2, but investors will be allowed to conduct trades over the next year in order to divest themselves of their holdings in the banned companies, per the Financial Times.

Of note: In order to effectively crack down on China's use of surveillance technology the U.S. would need to convince its allies in Europe, as well as Japan and South Korea, to also institute similar investment bans, the New York Times notes.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.