WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Proposed Chinese acquisitions of American companies led U.S. government national security reviews in 2015 for the fourth year in a row, the Treasury Department said in a report released on Wednesday.
The Treasury's latest annual report for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, showed that Chinese transactions accounted for 29 of the 143 deals reviewed in 2015, the most recent year for which data has been made available.CFIUS, a secretive interagency panel chaired by the Treasury, reviewed 24 Chinese transactions in 2014, 21 in 2013 and 23 in 2012. The Treasury report did not identify the specific acquisitions reviewed.Canada was second in 2015 CFIUS reviews, with 22 transactions, followed by Britain with 19 and Japan with 12.The report showed that 66 transactions, or 46 percent, went to full investigations in 2015, compared with 51 deals, or 35 percent, going to full investigations in 2014.Chinese acquisitions of U.S. companies have increased in volume and value since 2015 and have come under increasing scrutiny.There were 87 announced acquisitions of U.S. companies by Chinese firms in 2017 through late July, compared with 77 deals in the corresponding period of 2016. Reuters reported that CFIUS had objected to at least nine deals from foreign buyers so far this year. U.S. President Donald Trump last week blocked a Chinese-backed private-equity firm from buying U.S. chipmaker Lattice Semiconductor Corp