China Center Research Brief: CFIUS Reform Set to Disrupt Business as Usual for MNCs in China

The US appears to be getting serious about responding to China’s long-standing asymmetries on trade, investment, and market access conditions – the “unlevel playing field,” per se. The US government’s orientation toward China has demonstrably changed, and 2018 is shaping up to be a pivotal year where rhetoric turns into action. Much attention has been paid to the Trump administration’s upcoming decisions on new tariff regimes and other trade restrictions and related trade war hyperbole, but a different and subtler change may have more impact on MNCs operating on the ground in China: the reform and empowerment of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).