China Opens New Front In Trade War

China has just about run out of American imports to tax, and it is looking for ways to retaliate to U.S. tariffs. Those can include slow inspections for imports at Chinese ports and tighter regulatory scrutiny of American companies doing business in China. The abandoned deal for Qualcomm to buy Netherlands-based NXP Semiconductors for  $44 billion appears to be a casualty of Chinese regulation, and several other global deals involving American companies are under review in China, among them Walt Disney Company’s $71 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox, and United Technologies $30 billion purchase of Rockwell Collins. American regulators have taken a similar stance on international deals that they believe could benefit China. In August, Congress strengthened the ability of the government’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to block foreign deals. Chinese regulators in China can block any new venture that they think would have too much market control in China. The country’s monopoly law allows regulators to consider more than what an individual deal might cost consumers or a specific Chinese business. But blocking American deals isn’t cost free. It could prompt foreign companies to pull out of China just when economic growth there is slowing.