Trump’s Killing of Chip Deal Pushes Protectionism as It Invokes Security
On Friday, Mr. Mnuchin took the unusual step of commenting on the normally secretive Cfius process, saying in an interview with CNBC
that the Broadcom bid presented “a unique situation” and that he and the committee “are fully prepared to use our powers to protect national security.”
In part, the White House was concerned that Broadcom’s multiple joint ventures in China might give the Chinese government the ability to
influence Broadcom’s actions — including decisions about whether to continue building up Qualcomm’s research and development capacity.
Daniel H. Rosen, a partner at the research firm Rhodium Group, said the attempted takeover hit “right
at the core of concerns about how national security concerns are going to evolve tomorrow.”
“I think any foreign acquirer would have given rise to very serious and difficult-to-answer questions in the United States right now,” he said.
“With this action, the Trump administration is signaling
that it will act to protect U. S. economic and national security, which are increasingly viewed as one and the same thing when confronting the rise of China as a technology power,” said Paul S. Triolo, the head of global technology for the risk-consulting firm Eurasia Group.
The fight over Qualcomm played into the administration’s agenda, with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a government panel known as Cfius, seizing the opportunity to protect an American company whose semiconductors power the smartphones
and tablets of today and could guide the autonomous vehicles of tomorrow.
Top administration officials who sit on Cfius, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, argued
that ceding control of Qualcomm to the Singapore-based company, Broadcom, would cripple America’s technological prowess and give China an advantage, according to people familiar with the administration’s thinking.