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The New York Stock Exchange has started delisting securities of 3 Chinese telecom companies. The move came after President Donald Trump barred US investments in Chinese firms Washington says are owned or controlled by the military. The move by the NYSE will limit US investor access, follows global index providers MSCI Inc, S&P Dow Jones Indices, FTSE Russell, and Nasdaq deleting various Chinese companies from their indexes. a former White House official, Roger Robinson said it’s the latest step, but at least an awakening to national security and human rights-related risk. NYSE said, “The issuers, China Telecom Corporation Limited, China Mobile Limited 0941.HK, and China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited, were no longer suitable for listing as the order prohibits any transactions in securities designed to provide investment exposure to such securities, of any Communist Chinese military company, by any United States person”.

The order seems to provide a path to a 1999 law that mandated the Department of Defense compiles a list of Chinese military companies. The Pentagon only complied with the mandate this year. The agency has so far designated 35 companies, including oil company CNOOC Ltd, and China’s top chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. point to be noted that China has condemned the ban. The fund managers have said it could benefit non-US investors able to pick up the stocks. NYSE said it would suspend trading in the stocks on either 7^th Jan or 11^th Jan. The issuers have a right to a review of the decision. It is noteworthy that each of the telecoms companies named by the NYSE also has a listing in Hong Kong. China Telecom is also under fire from the US Federal Communications Commission.

The FCC earlier said in December that it had started the process of revoking the company’s authorization to operate in the United States. The companies could not be reached for comment on a public holiday in China. It is important that ties between Washington and Beijing have grown increasingly antagonistic over the past year as the world’s top two economies sparred over Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, imposition of national security law in Hong Kong, and rising tensions in the South China Sea. It is noteworthy that President Trump signed a law last month to kick Chinese companies off US stock exchanges unless they adhere to American auditing standards.