Investing.com-- Beijing is building a list of major U.S. technology companies that can be targeted with antitrust probes and other tools as part of retaliatory measures against trade tariffs under President Donald Trump, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
Chinese officials are seeking to influence people in the tech industry who are in Trump’s circles, the WSJ report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Beijing had last week launched an antitrust probe into Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL), just after Trump’s 10% tariffs on China took effect. The country also outlined trade tariffs on some U.S. commodity imports, as well as export restrictions on rare earth materials to the U.S.
The Google probe has little actual bearing on the tech giant, given that Google services have been blocked in China for over a decade.
But media reports said China was also considering an antitrust probe against Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Inc- a move that could have much more dire consequences. Apple depends heavily on China- both as a market and as a manufacturing hub.
The iPhone maker has been steadily losing market share in China over the past two years. Part of this can be attributed to Beijing enforcing some restrictions on government employees from using Apple products, over security measures.
The Chinese government has also begun encouraging consumers to buy products from local manufacturers, going as far as offering subsidies on some purchases.
Beijing has also said it is investigating Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), which was recently instructed by the U.S. government to further curb its chip sales in China.
Other American companies that could be targeted include server maker Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) and chip design software maker Synopsys (NASDAQ:SNPS), the WSJ report said.
Trump has threatened up to 60% trade tariffs on China- a scenario that JPMorgan analysts warned could eventually play out. Such a move is expected to draw even more severe retaliation from Beijing.
After imposing tariffs last week, Trump said he was in no hurry to open dialogue with President Xi Jinping.