As reported, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) announced on December 31 that it would commence proceedings to delist the three telecom companies of China Telecom Corp Ltd, China Mobile Ltd and China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. to comply with the executive order signed by the Trump administration to prohibit U.S. investments in “Chinese companies owned or controlled by the Chinese military”.
In response, China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said, “The US executive order, which is based on political purposes, has entirely ignored the actual situations of relevant companies and the legitimate rights of global investors, and severely damaged market rules and order. The size of the three companies’ ADR listings remains small, with a total market capitalization of less than 20 billion RMB and relatively low trading volume, so the direct impact of a potential delisting would be rather limited on their growth and general market performance. We firmly support the three companies to safeguard their legitimate rights according to law, and believe they are able to properly handle any negative impact caused by the executive order and potential listing.”
The Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said that such suppression of Chinese companies by abusing state power under the weakest pretext of national security is at variance with market rules and in violation of market logic, which harms the lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies, as well as interests of international investors, including US investors, and will severely weaken global confidence in the American capital market.