00:00We're back with Bloomberg Tech and we have some breaking news regarding China pushing the Trump administration to roll back national security restrictions, of course, on Chinese deals in the United States.
00:10What do they say they'll get in return? They're dangling the prospect of a massive investment package.
00:16Let's get to all the details. Bloomberg's State Department reporter Eric Martin is one of those that helped break this story.
00:22And it really fits in the whole context that Xi Jinping is pushing hard on the U.S. to lift various restrictions and change some of the ways in which it views China.
00:33Absolutely, Caroline. This is what we're hearing about seems to be China appealing to Trump's reputation as a dealmaker and his idea, his focus, the art of the deal, of course, being his most famous writing.
00:47And just basically looking at how can China get a treatment in the U.S. more similar to some of the other countries who have announced big investment packages in the U.S., including Japan, a commitment, a looser commitment from the European Union as well.
01:04And so looking at how China can invest in the U.S., can export more of its product to the U.S., given that one issue for China and its economy has been weakness of the Chinese consumer.
01:15And just overall looking at this would be a huge change from what we've seen in the past decade.
01:21Remember, it was just a few years ago we saw this congressional committee set up to scrutinize Chinese involvement in the U.S. economy and the U.S.-China national security relationship, economic relationship.
01:33So this would be a huge reversal of a decade of U.S. policy bipartisan if this comes to be.
01:40Eric, one of our sources is saying that earlier this year, China floated or dangled the figure of $1 trillion.
01:49Could you just explain that reporting to us?
01:53Well, when we're talking about economies, the size of the U.S. economy and the size of China,
01:58what we're hearing from sources is that this $1 trillion figure was mentioned earlier this year,
02:03but it could potentially be down the line even larger in terms of the economic size of the two countries
02:10and what would be big enough to really move the dial in the economic relationship.
02:16And remember, China has seen a series of proposed deals involving Chinese companies rejected by CFIUS,
02:22the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, led by the Treasury Department.
02:29So this national security concern has loomed large for many years in the U.S.-China relationship,
02:36and this would be a huge change.
02:37It's really hard to overstate how big a change this would be if this deal is reached
02:42and if investment in the U.S. is opened in a much bigger way to China and to Chinese companies.
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