“Deglobalization” has entered the narrative zeitgeist. But what’s happening on the ground? This weekly series seeks to answer that question with a round-up of deglobalization developments from the week that’s done.
1. Singapore is considering a bill that would give the government more direct say over entities and transactions on the grounds of national security. Called the Significant Investments Review Bill, the legislation was recently introduced into Parliament, but has reportedly raised concerns among investors. “The breadth of the Bill potentially brings about a significant shift from the existing regulatory environment, which only allows for limited oversight over sector-specific restrictions for foreign investments in the telecommunications, banking, and utilities sectors,” writes the law firm Linklaters.
2. The Australian ministry of defence has proposed a bill that would lower the barrier for sharing of technology between Australia and its AUKUS partners, the US and the UK. However, critics caution that other parts of the bill could criminalize a wide swathe of commercial activity, potentially causing the country to lose access to nimble companies, reports Breaking Defense.
3. Washington and Beijing struck a deal on halting the flow of fentanyl into to the US. The White House removed sanctions on the Chinese Ministry of Public Security’s Institute of Forensic Science in exchange for Beijing’s agreement to reduce the export of chemical materials used to the deadly synthetic opioid.
4. Alibaba’s shares plummeted on news of the Chinese tech giant’s decision to scrap a spinoff of its cloud computing unit. The company cited uncertainty over US chip export restrictions as a reason for the move. “We believe that a full spin-off of Cloud Intelligence Group may not achieve the intended effect of shareholder value enhancement,” Alibaba said in a statement.
5. Semiconductor equipment maker Applied Materials is under criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice for potentially evading export restrictions on China’s top chipmaker SMIC, Reuters reports, citing three sources. Separately, Chinese chipmaker YMTC is suing US rival Micron, alleging patent infringement.
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