Signs of China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom are shown during the China International Import Expo (CIIE) at the Shanghai National Exhibition and Convention Center, China, on November 5, 2018.
Aly Song | Reuters
The New York Stock Exchange will withdraw three Chinese telecommunications giants after all.
The stock market will remove US-listed shares of China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom from the Big Board, the NYSE said on Wednesday.
Last week, the NYSE said it would withdraw shares to comply with an executive order signed by President Donald Trump. The order sought to ban U.S. companies and individuals from investing in companies that the administration was supposed to help the Chinese military.
He then reversed that decision on Monday, causing a lot of confusion. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told the exchange he disagreed with the reversal, a senior administration official told CNBC’s Eamon Javers on Tuesday.
The NYSE said the second reversal was due to new guidelines from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control, according to which U.S. people could not make certain transactions with the three companies from the January 11. At 4 p.m. ET on Jan. 11, the exchange said.
Shares of China Telecom fell 1.7% at the start of trading, while China Mobile fell about 1% and China Unicom gained about 0.8%.
Chinese officials criticized the NYSE’s original decision, with a spokesman for China’s Securities Regulatory Commission saying Monday that the executive order “completely ignored the real situations of relevant companies and the legitimate rights of global investors.” and severely damaged the rule and order of the market. ” “
Trump issued the original order in November, which was part of a series of moves by his administration against Chinese companies.
In August, the president launched a legal battle for the social networking site TikTok with a similar order aimed at its parent company, China-based ByteDance, and Tencent. Several U.S. companies, including Oracle and Walmart, participated in discussions to have partial stakes in the video-sharing app.
Trump signed a bill in December that would force the withdrawal of Chinese shares that do not adhere to U.S. audit standards, and the administration directed the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board to avoid investing in Chinese companies in May. .
“With reports from Christine Wang.”