Commentary: Washington's proposed new China curbs could deal costly blow for U.S. businesses

BEIJING, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. government's latest proposed rules on outbound investment in China are set to tighten the screws on American businesses yet again. Far from protecting U.S. interests, this move politicizes normal business activity, undermines market principles and fuels uncertainty in China-U.S. economic relations.

The U.S. Treasury's proposal to add biotechnology to its outbound investment restrictions on China, alongside curbs on supercomputing and hypersonic technologies, marks another potential expansion of Washington's sweeping investment controls.

Fundamentally, the proposed rules run counter to the important consensus reached by the two heads of state. Since the 2023 executive order targeting semiconductors, quantum computing and AI, Washington's approach has remained consistent: impeding China's technological advance.

Ironically, biotechnology is where both sides share huge mutual benefits. One-third of the world's innovative drugs in development come from China. In 2025, overseas licensing deals for Chinese innovative drugs reached a historic high of more than 130 billion U.S. dollars, according to China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Major U.S. drugmakers, including Pfizer and Bristol Myers Squibb, have struck multibillion-dollar deals with Chinese biotech firms in 2026, while the U.S. pharmaceutical industry has repeatedly lobbied against stringent investment restrictions. According to the U.S.-China Business Council, 95 percent of respondents to the council consider China "somewhat to very important" for them to stay competitive globally. Washington's restrictions risk undermining the commercial partnerships that American companies see as vital to their competitiveness and depriving them of access to one of the world's most dynamic markets.

China remains a magnet for foreign investors. The Ministry of Commerce revealed that China had registered 33.8-percent growth in foreign direct investment (FDI) in high-tech industries during the first nine months of this year. As capital flows into China, U.S. investors constrained by Washington's red tape risk watching valuable opportunities slip away.

Biotechnology sits at the heart of global public health. Combating pandemics, advancing breakthroughs in oncology and developing vaccines against infectious diseases all demand pooled scientific data, shared clinical trial networks and cross-border talent flows. By lumping biotech into its national security basket, Washington conflates life-saving medical innovation with the so-called strategic competition. As the world's two largest economies and permanent members of the UN Security Council, China and the United States bear shared global responsibilities to advance health security for all. Unilateral restrictive measures go against the trend of the times and run counter to the due responsibilities of major countries.

Time and again, history has shown that the China-U.S. economic relationship is rooted in mutual benefit and win-win cooperation. It must not be derailed by the politicization of economic ties or overstretching of national security concerns. Pressure from Washington will not stop China from moving forward and delivering its opening-up commitment.

China will closely follow further developments in the issue and reserves the right to take corresponding measures. It is time for Washington to listen to its own business community and recalibrate its approach along rational and market-oriented lines. Pressure from Washington will only serve to make it very hard for American firms to advance in collaboration with their Chinese peers.