Shockingly, a counterfeit factory has produced a 3-nanometer chip.

Chapter 344 Freeze! Or not freeze?

"No real estate."

However, they have bank accounts in the United States, mainly for settlement purposes, and the amounts are not large.

However, they hold shares in some American companies, such as Qualcomm, Apple, and Microsoft, through offshore funds, which theoretically can be frozen.

The Minister of Justice spoke in an even lower voice, but he still brought up this flimsy solution.

After all, the moment he opened his mouth, whether he spoke or not, he would be burned alive, so he might as well choose the more decisive option.

The Vice Minister of Commerce then dodged the question, first giving an "oh," then frowning:

"I remember now, Huaxin Investment does indeed hold shares in some technology companies?"

But if we freeze the shares of Fruit held by Transsion, what will Fruit's reaction be? Cook will storm into the White House and yell at us.

Bryson nodded in agreement. As expected of his henchman, his explanation was certainly novel.

The legal counsel also knew this was a hot potato.

"Therefore, it is difficult to implement and requires consideration of pressure from all parties."

But if we really want to put pressure on Transsion, there's no more direct way than freezing its assets.

After all, when the industry invested in these companies, each company had just experienced the financial crisis, and valuations being halved or even reduced by 1% was normal. Now, under the president's leadership, they have returned to normal.

If it's blocked...

But this is not the worst consequence, after all, this involves freezing assets indefinitely.

"We have no say in Chuan Ying's assets in China, but as for their assets in the United States... they are making long-term investments, so freezing them won't hurt them much. I suggest we just let it go."

"The political consequences of this are very serious. What will foreign investors think? If Transsion can be frozen today, others can be frozen tomorrow."

Panic over monopolies and other issues could spread again.

"Ericsson and Nokia have both settled. We're acting alone, isolated and helpless; will our European allies not help us?"

The discussion in the meeting room was increasingly veerging towards a less-than-ideal direction, and Bryson raised his hand to stop the conversation.

"I have a question: if we freeze Transsion's assets, how will Transsion react?"

No one answered!

After all, although these shares are worth trillions, Transsion doesn't seem to have interfered much except for the year-end dividends!

If he really freezes it, it's probably because he thinks the president isn't dying fast enough.

So Bryson answered the question himself.

"They will increase pressure on our companies and communicate with them. They are still selling chips in China, Apple is still selling mobile phones in China, and Intel is still selling processors in China."

If Transsion loses its shares, it will definitely push the Chinese government to retaliate, and our company will suffer even greater losses.

The moment those people nodded, Bryson synthesized the document in front of him.

"The proposal to freeze assets will be put on hold for now."

Some people in the meeting room breathed a sigh of relief, while others frowned slightly, but no one objected, and no one demanded immediate implementation.

Bryson stood up, walked out, went to the office door, pushed it open, and went in, but did not sit down.

He stood by the window, looking at the lawn in Washington and the Washington Monument in the distance.

The position of Commerce Minister is not easy.

He put down his phone and continued looking at the agenda for the Transsion Home press conference.

July 15th, Shenzhen Bay Sports Center, 12000 seats.

With less than 20 days left, there is still a lot of preparation work to be done.

As for freezing assets... America shouldn't be that stupid, right?

But to Shen Fei's surprise, the United States actually did it...

On July 10th, just as Transsion was promoting its smart home products, America prepared another announcement.

This time, the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Commerce coordinated the effort.

However, the influence of this matter was too great, and he was not at ease, so he still tested it out a little.

The news was leaked in advance.

The message was quickly relayed back through the head of Transsion's U.S. office.

"President Li, the Americans have gone mad; they've included us in their list of military-industrial enterprises."

I received this news in the middle of the night.

The U.S. will update their report first thing tomorrow morning: the Department of Defense will designate us as a military-industrial company, the Department of Commerce will prohibit all capital investment in us, and we will freeze all our assets in the United States.

Li Qing was also a little incredulous, after all, this meant freezing all assets.

According to a piece of information Huang Tianya revealed to him, Transsion's assets in the United States are not just hundreds of billions of US dollars, but trillions, and they didn't start out as a...

America has really gone mad.

"By the way, what reason did they give for classifying us as a military enterprise?"

"Fighter jet engines. They say Transsion is working on fighter jet engines?"

Li Qing laughed too, and the person on the other end of the phone was no longer sleepy at all.

Transsion is indeed working on engines, but those are for carrier-based aircraft, and the two are not the same thing. After all... modifications are still needed.

"The announcement they deliberately leaked to me stated: Transsion is involved in military projects, specifically the research and development and manufacturing of high-performance fighter jet engines, which pose a security threat to the United States."

Li Qing laughed for a while, then said, "Understood, inform the boss immediately."

I checked, and there's still some time before I get off work. Mr. Shen probably hasn't gone home to see his little princess yet.

So she knocked on the door and went inside.

"Boss, America has gone mad!"

The Department of Defense added us to the list of military-industrial companies, meaning we manufacture fighter jet engines, and the Department of Commerce froze all of our assets in the United States.

Li Qing simply reported the key points; as for prohibiting investment in Transsion, if Transsion really went under...

Those capitalists won't listen to this nonsense.

Shen Fei looked at her with delight and even stood up.

There was really no panic, only various kinds of information.

"They really are going to freeze our assets."

Li Qing nodded, checked again, and his eyes also showed the same disbelief.

That's how it is at the moment.

But they came up with an excuse: "It shouldn't trigger a circuit breaker, right?"

Shen Fei casually waved his hand, saying that the market didn't care whether he made up a reason or not; all they knew was that the United States had frozen Transsion's assets.

"That's not necessarily true... but could you please show me some specific terms?"

Shen Fei was also surprised, after all, it was Obama who was in power at the time, not that crazy guy Trump, and yet he actually agreed to this plan.

It seems that the title of America's "best" president has driven him mad.

Shen Fei looked at the faxed document, pointed to the high-performance aircraft engine, and said:

"Fighter jet engine?" Shen Fei pointed and shook his head. "Their intelligence department is unreliable!"

We're developing shipborne engines, not ordinary engines.

They don't even understand this?

"The announcement said it was a fighter jet."

"Never mind, it doesn't matter, they're all engines anyway."