Trump’s Killing of Chip Deal Pushes Protectionism as It Invokes Security<br />On Friday, Mr. Mnuchin took the unusual step of commenting on the normally secretive Cfius process, saying in an interview with CNBC<br />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.”<br />In part, the White House was concerned that Broadcom’s multiple joint ventures in China might give the Chinese government the ability to<br />influence Broadcom’s actions — including decisions about whether to continue building up Qualcomm’s research and development capacity.<br />Daniel H. Rosen, a partner at the research firm Rhodium Group, said the attempted takeover hit “right<br />at the core of concerns about how national security concerns are going to evolve tomorrow.”<br />“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.<br />“With this action, the Trump administration is signaling<br />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.<br />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<br />and tablets of today and could guide the autonomous vehicles of tomorrow.<br />Top administration officials who sit on Cfius, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, argued<br />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.
