Obama Nixes Aixtron, SE Deal

The Wall Street Journal reported today that the deal for Aixtron, SE a maker of chip making technologies, by Fujian Grand Chip Investment Fund, was forbidden by the U.S. President.  This was only his second intervention in such a deal.  I have a couple of previous posts on this, so this is really the end to a continuing story of the purchase of sensitive technology companies by Chinese-owned state businesses.  This is a tricky area because it is not the same as a commercial business buying into those same technologies.  This is China buying them, and in this case, using some pretty clever manipulation of market dynamics to make it appear to be a good purchase.  The New York Times exposed the story behind that, to their credit.  Now the Chinese are playing dumb about all of that and  thrashing around threatening the U.S over this kind of action.  Considering the restrictions China has on US buying of the same technologies in China, that is barking up the wrong tree.  The tree they should be looking for is the reciprocity tree.  There is none between us and China and it is about time to start some.