对于中国企业的海外扩张，已经从传统民用企业延伸到高科技行业，对于美国芯片企业的收购已经跃跃欲试，但美国政客不会放任中企的芯片收购案；
本文“美国政客不会放任中企的芯片收购案”来源网络，英文原版及汉文翻译版同时发布；
Political Backlash Grows in Washington to Chinese Takeovers
HONG KONG — As Chinese companies try to snap up American tech businesses, they are setting off ripples of unease in the Obama administration and in Congress, inciting a backlash that has stopped the latest acquisition attempt.
One of the companies that first brought silicon to Silicon Valley — Fairchild Semiconductor International — said it would remain in American hands after rejecting a takeover offer worth about $2.5 billion led by Chinese state-backed buyers. Instead, Fairchild embraced a smaller bid from an American rival on Tuesday, citing concerns that federal regulators might reject the Chinese deal.
The unsuccessful Chinese bid for Fairchild was just one of at least 10 such offers in the last year for international semiconductor businesses, mostly in the United States. China’s Five-Year Plan, the government’s economic and strategic road map, has emphasized semiconductors as a core industry. And a long list of Chinese companies with varying ties to the government have been trying to acquire foreign technology in the sector.
Recent Chinese moves in areas like heavy equipment, aerospace and financial services are also drawing attention from both ends of the American political spectrum.
A group of 44 Republican members of Congress and one Democrat sent a letter on Tuesday afternoon to the Treasury Department, demanding that the Obama administration’s interagency committee on foreign acquisitions “conduct a full and rigorous investigation” of a bid by a company in Chongqing, China, to acquire the small but historic Chicago Stock Exchange.
Representative Robert Pittenger, Republican of North Carolina, said in a telephone interview that it had been easy to gather signatures on the letter in the House, with members worried that the deal would give China direct access to America’s financial infrastructure. “It took two days — generally, you’ll spend two weeks trying to get signatures,” he said.
But because semiconductors are the tiny electronic cores of a long list of military systems, including drones and smart bombs, Chinese interest in them has attracted the most attention in Washington. Those worries have been amplified as the Obama administration has repeatedly accused Beijing of online espionage against the United States. The worries have further increased as China has expanded its role in the South China Sea, including claims by the United States and Taiwan this week that China has deployed surface-to-air missiles there.
“China’s engaged in a buying spree of international semiconductor firms,” said Michael R. Wessel, a member of the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a group created by Congress to monitor bilateral relations. “What they can’t develop on their own, they intend to buy, if they can, or steal, if they must.”
The Chinese government has vehemently denied that it is responsible for hacking attacks, while pointing to detailed disclosures by Edward Snowden of how the United States engages in extensive electronic intelligence gathering on China. Economists in China — and some in the United States, particularly at Wall Street banks that advise on Chinese acquisitions — argue that the United States needs to remain open to foreign investment, particularly given low American savings rates.
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When Washington politicians start objecting to Chinese acquisitions, “they’re caught up by old-school, Cold War thinking,” said Fred Hu, a prominent Chinese economist and fund manager.
Fears of Chinese control over critical technologies recently prompted United States officials to block a $2.9 billion deal for Chinese investors to buy a controlling stake in a unit of the Dutch electronics company Philips.
Fairchild said in early January that it expected a bid from China Resources Microelectronics — a unit of the state-owned China Resources Holdings — and Hua Capital Management to be a “superior proposal.” That offer amounted to $21.70 a share in cash, compared with the $20 a share that ON Semiconductor, an American company, had on the table. But worries about the likelihood of approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States outweighed the attractiveness of the bid.
Fairchild’s decision shows the effect of broader political suspicion in the United States toward Chinese investment in the high-tech sector. Last summer, a similar but much larger deal was derailed before it even made it to regulators. The $23 billion bid for the American memory chip maker Micron by a Chinese state-controlled firm was undone by concerns about its political feasibility.
In that case, Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, voiced worries about the deal’s effect on national security in a public letter to Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew. But Republicans are now starting to take up the issue, which means that it could take on a partisan dimension in an election year.
Despite the difficult climate, Chinese bids for American companies seem likely to increase, affected by a slowing Chinese economy and a desire by many Chinese companies to move money out of the country before China’s currency can weaken further against the dollar. In the sensitive microchip industry, deals are also being driven by more than $100 billion set aside by the Chinese government to help the country improve the sophistication and scale of the critical industry.
The number of deals involving a Chinese company that is trying to buy an overseas chip maker rose to 21 last year, including the offer for Fairchild, from eight in 2010, according to the data company Dealogic. There have already been five this year, worth $857 million.
That has drawn more attention to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, also known as Cfius. An interagency body that includes representatives from the Treasury, Justice and Defense Departments, Cfius can recommend against foreign deals made for American companies, or companies connected to the United States, on grounds of national security. The agency can also broker compromises in which companies enact special security checks for sensitive aspects of an acquisition or sell off those assets.
Many in the semiconductor industry are watching closely to see whether Cfius will investigate a bid by the Chinese chip maker Tsinghua Holdings for a stake in the American company Western Digital, which makes hard disk drives. A lack of an investigation could herald more moves by Chinese investors to take minority stakes in American chip and memory companies.
The potential Chinese buyers of Fairchild had already agreed to pay a $108 million termination fee if the deal did not get approval from Cfius. They also increased their offer to $22 a share after Fairchild raised concerns. But Fairchild’s transaction committee said an agreement would still be too risky.
The Fairchild board said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday that it found the higher offer attractive but that there was “nonnegligible risk of a failure to obtain Cfius approval.”
Fairchild works on several technologies that could have raised concerns. In particular, it develops and produces sensors that track motion in three dimensions, which are used in many cutting-edge technologies. Xsens, a company acquired by Fairchild in 2014, works on sensors that guide unmanned submarines and drones and help in maritime surveillance.
Shares of ON Semiconductor closed up more than 6 percent on Tuesday, when Fairchild announced that it still favored the American company’s bid. Fairchild’s stock dropped almost 3 percent.
香港——随着中国公司试图抢购美国科技企业，它们在奥巴马政府和国会内部引发了不安，并遭到强烈反对，导致最新的一次收购尝试以失败告终。
最早将硅引入硅谷的公司之一仙童半导体国际公司(Fairchild Semiconductor International)拒绝了由国家支持的中国买家领衔的收购要约，表示自己仍将是一家美国企业。中国买家的要约价值约为25亿美元。周二该公司以担心联邦监管机构可能会否决和中国买家的交易为由，接受了一家美国竞争对手低于中国买家的要约。
去年中国企业对国际半导体公司发出了至少10起类似的要约，此次对仙童发出要约而失败只是其中之一。这些要约涉及的半导体公司主要是美国公司。中国政府制定的五年计划，作为该国的经济和战略路线图，强调了半导体是核心行业。大量和政府有着各种各样的关系的中国公司，一直试图获取半导体行业的外国技术。
中国最近在重型设备、航空航天和金融服务等领域的动作，在美国政坛左右两翼人士中均引起了关注。
周二下午44名共和党国会议员和一名民主党议员给财政部寄了一封信，要求奥巴马政府就外国收购项目成立的跨部门委员会，对中国重庆一家企业发出的收购要约「进行全面、严格的调查」。这家重庆公司的收购对象是规模虽小但却具有历史意义的芝加哥股票交易所。
北卡罗来纳州共和党众议员罗伯特·皮滕格(Robert Pittenger)在接受电话采访时表示，在众议院征集签名的过程很容易，议员们都担心这笔交易会赋予中国直接进入美国金融基础设施的途径。「只用了两天，而一般来说征集签名要花两周时间，」他说。
因为微小的半导体是包括无人机和激光制导炸弹在内的大量军事系统的电子核心，中国对它们的兴趣引起了华盛顿最大的关注。随着奥巴马政府多次指责北京从事针对美国的间|谍活动，那些担忧被放大。而且随着中国在南海日益扩大自己的角色，包括本周被美国和台湾爆出在那里部署地对空导弹，美国的担忧进一步得到强化。
「中国掀起了一股收购国际半导体公司的狂潮，」美国国会为监测双边关系而成立的美中经济安全审查委员会(U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission)委员迈克尔·R·韦赛尔(Michael R. Wessel)说。「对无法自主研发的技术，他们想能买的就买，不得已时就偷。」
中国政府言辞激烈地否认自己应该为黑客袭击负责，同时指出，爱德华·斯诺登(Edward Snowden)透露的细节表明，美国大量搜集有关中国的电子情报。中国的经济专家——以及美国的部分经济专家，尤其是供职于华尔街为中国收购案提供谘询服务的银行的经济专家——表示，美国需要继续对外国投资持开放态度，提别是考虑到美国储蓄利率较低。
中国知名经济学家、基金经理胡祖六称，当华盛顿的政界人士开始反对中国的收购项目时，「他们陷入了老派的冷战思维」。
最近，对中国控制关键技术的担忧促使美国官员叫停了一笔价值29亿美元的交易。在该交易中，中国投资者拟收购荷兰电子公司飞利浦(Philips)旗下一家公司的控股权。
仙童曾在1月初称，预计华润集团旗下子公司华润微电子和华创投资的要约会是「最高报价」。该报价相当于每股21.70美元现金，而相比之下，美国公司ON半导体(ON Semiconductor)的报价仅为每股20美元。但和报价的吸引力相比，对美国海外投资委员会(Committee on ForeignInvestment in the United States)可能不会批准交易的担忧占了上风。
美国政界广泛怀疑中国在高科技领域的投资，仙童的决定则显示出了这种怀疑的影响。去年夏天，一宗规模更大的类似交易甚至还没上报给监管机构就落空了。因为对政治可行性的担忧，中国一家国有公司出价230亿美元收购美国存储芯片生产商美光(Micron)的要约被取消。
在那件事中，纽约州民主党参议员查克·舒默(Chuck Schumer)在写给财政部长雅各布·J·卢(Jacob J. Lew)的一封公开信中表示，担心交易会影响国家安全。但共和党现在又开始重提此事，这意味着在选举年，这个问题可能会表现出党派纷争的一面。
尽管形势艰难，但中国对美国公司发出的要约似乎可能会增多。这是受了中国经济日渐放缓的影响，很多中国企业希望在人民币兑美元进一步贬值之前把资金转移到国外。在敏感的微芯片行业，中国政府为帮助增强这个关键行业的先进性，并提升其规模而预留的1000多亿美元，也推动了交易的达成。
从Dealogic公司的数据来看，涉及试图购买海外芯片生产商的中国公司的交易数量，已经从2010年的八宗增加了到了去年的21宗，其中包括对仙童发出的要约。今年已经有五宗了，涉及的金额达8.57亿美元。
这让又名Cfius的美国海外投资委员会得到了更多的关注。作为一个跨部门机构，Cfius的成员包财政部、司法部和国防部的代表。它可以以国家安全为由，建议否决外国公司对美国公司，或和美国有关的公司发出的交易要约。该机构还能从中斡旋，促使各方达成妥协。在这些妥协中，公司要对收购的敏感方面进行特别的安全检查，或是变卖掉那些资产。
半导体行业的很多从业者都在密切关注，看Cfius是否会调查中国芯片生产商清华控股对生产硬盘设备的美国公司西部数据(Western Digital)的股份发出的收购要约。如果Cfius不调查，则可能预示着中国投资者收购美国芯片和存储设备公司少数股权的动作会增多。
此前，仙童的潜在中国买家已同意，如果交易得不到Cfius的批准，便支付1.08亿美元的终止费。在仙童提出担忧后，它们还将报价增至每股22美元。但仙童的交易委员会称，达成协议的风险还是太高。
周二仙童董事会在一份监管文件中称，公司觉得较高的报价很有吸引力，但「无法从Cfius获批的风险不可忽视」。
仙童拥有的几项技术可能引起了担忧。特别是其研发和生产的能在三维层面追踪运动的传感器。这种传感器被用在了很多尖端技术上。2014年被仙童收购的公司Xsens生产的传感器，能引导无人潜艇和无人机，并协助海上监视行动。
在仙童宣布依然支持ON半导体的要约的周二，后者的股价收高逾6%。而仙童的股价则下跌近3%。
