The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has revealed it would advance a plan to delist China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom after receiving clarification of US policy from the administration of outgoing President Donald Trump.
In a statement on Tuesday, January 6, NYSE noted trading of securities from China’s three major telecom players will be halted on 11 January as originally planned.
It added the decision was based on fresh guidance from the Department of the Treasury, which confirmed transactions with the companies would be prohibited under an executive order issued by President Trump in November 2020.
Last month, NYSE said it would drop the companies to comply with Trump’s directive, but backtracked on 4 January due to confusion around implementation of the policy.
NYSE said the operators have a right to have the decision reviewed “by a committee of the board of directors of the exchange”.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) previously blasted the move as politically driven, but said it would have a “rather limited” impact on the companies’ growth.
Meanwhile, the US has already banned Huawei and ZTE from its 5G deployment, forced Tiktok to sell to US companies and is currently considering curtailing Alibaba’s operations in the US.
All of that forms part of the Trump government’s political battle against China.
