To most Americans, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States is just another innocuous bit of D.C. bureaucracy. The interagency committee, chaired by the Treasury secretary but with representatives from Defense, State, Justice, Homeland Security and other departments, reviews proposed foreign acquisitions in the U.S. for potential national security issues and can recommend that the president block deals.
To China, that makes CFIUS anything but innocuous. It has emerged as perhaps the largest single obstacle to Chinese mergers and acquisitions activity in the United States, and rejection of a number of attempted deals, especially in the high-tech sector, has fueled perceptions among Chinese business leaders that CFIUS is stacked against them.
