344: Chapter 344 Freeze! Or not freeze?

"No real estate.

But they have accounts in United States banks, mainly settlement accounts with small amounts.

But they hold shares in some United States companies, such as Qualcomm, Apple, Microsoft, and others. This is held through offshore funds, and theoretically, it can be frozen."

The Legal Department head's voice was even lower, but he still stated this method, which wasn't really a solution.

After all, the moment he spoke up, he would be targeted regardless of whether he could say it or not, so he might as well choose a more decisive option.

The Deputy Minister of Commerce started playing tai chi again, first saying "Oh," and then frowning:

"I remember now, Huaxin Investment does indeed have shares in some tech companies?

But if we freeze the Apple stock held by Transsion, what will Apple's reaction be? Cook will rush to the White House to curse us out."

Bryson nodded; as expected of his henchman, the direction of his explanation was novel.

The legal counsel also knew this was a hot potato.

"So it is difficult to operate, and we need to consider the pressure from all sides.

But if we really want to pressure Transsion, there is no method more direct than freezing assets."

After all, when investing in these companies, each had just experienced the financial crisis, and valuations were slashed by half or even 90%; now, under the leadership of Obama, they had returned to normal.

If we block...

But this was not the worst consequence; after all, this was freezing assets, an indefinite freeze.

"We can't control Transsion's assets in China, and as for their assets in the United States... they are long-term investments, and freezing them won't hurt their core, so I suggest we forget it."

"The political consequences are very serious. What will foreign investors think? If we can freeze Transsion today, we can freeze others tomorrow.

Panic about monopolies might spread once again."

"Ericsson and Nokia have both reconciled. We are acting alone, isolated and helpless; will our European allies not care?"

The direction of the discussion in the conference room was increasingly retreating, and Bryson raised his hand to stop the discussion.

"I have a question: if we freeze Transsion's assets, what will Transsion's reaction be?"

No one answered!

After all, although these shares were worth trillions, Transsion... didn't seem to have interfered too much beyond the year-end dividends!

If he really froze them, he might be speeding up the President's death.

So Bryson answered the question himself.

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

If Transsion loses their shares, Transsion will definitely push the Chinese government to retaliate, and our companies' losses will be even greater."

The moment those people nodded, Bryson closed the file in front of him.

"The proposal to freeze assets is shelved for now."

Some in the conference room breathed a sigh of relief, some frowned slightly, but no one objected, and no one demanded immediate execution.

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

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

The position of Minister of Commerce is not easy to hold.

He put down his phone and continued to look at the schedule for the Transsion Home product launch.

July 15th, Shenzhen Bay Sports Center, 12,000 seats.

There were less than 20 days left, and there was still a lot of preparation work to do.

As for freezing assets... the United States 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, the United States had prepared another announcement.

This time, it was coordinated by both the Department of Defense and the Department of Commerce.

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

The news was leaked in advance.

So the news was quickly relayed back by the head of Transsion's United States office.

"Mr. Li, the United States is simply crazy. They have listed us as a military industrial enterprise...

I received this news in the middle of the night.

The United States will update it tomorrow morning. The Department of Defense is going to list us as a military enterprise, and then the Department of Commerce will prohibit all capital from investing in us, while simultaneously freezing all our assets in the United States."

Li Qing also found it hard to believe; after all, this was freezing all assets.

According to the little information Huang Tianya revealed to him, Transsion's assets in the United States were not just hundreds of billions of dollars, but trillions, and it didn't start with a 'one'...

The United States was truly crazy.

"By the way, what reason did they find to list us as a military industrial enterprise?"

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

Li Qing also laughed, and there was no sleepiness left on the other end of the phone.

Transsion was indeed working on engines, but those were engines for carrier-based aircraft, not the same thing; after all... they still needed modifications.

"The announcement they intentionally leaked to me is written like this: Transsion is involved in military industrial projects, specifically the research and development and manufacturing of high-performance fighter jet engines, posing a security threat to the United States."

Li Qing laughed for a while, then said: "Got it, notify the boss immediately."

She had already checked; there was still some time before getting off work. Mr. Shen shouldn't have gone home to see the little princess yet.

So she knocked on the door and went in.

"Boss, the United States is crazy!

The Department of Defense has listed us as a military industrial enterprise, saying we are developing fighter jet engines, and the Department of Commerce has frozen all our assets in the United States."

Li Qing simply reported the key points. As for prohibiting investment in Transsion, if Transsion really collapsed...

Those capitals wouldn't care about this nonsense.

Shen Fei looked at her with delight, even standing up.

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

"They really want to freeze our assets."

Li Qing nodded and confirmed again, with the same look of disbelief in her eyes.

"As of now, that is the case."

"But they found a reason, so it shouldn't cause a circuit breaker, right?"

Shen Fei waved his hand casually; whether they found a reason or not, the market wouldn't care. They would only know that the United States had frozen Transsion's assets.

"That's not necessarily true... But are there any specific terms for me to appreciate?"

Shen Fei was also very surprised. After all, the person in office was Obama, not that erratic guy, and he actually agreed to this plan.

It seems the title of "best" president of the United States had already driven him crazy.

Shen Fei looked at the fax document, pointing at the high-performance aircraft engines and said:

"Fighter jet engines?" Shen Fei shook his head while pointing, "Their intelligence agencies are unreliable!

What we are working on are carrier-based engines, not ordinary engines. They can't even figure this out?"

"The announcement says fighter jets."

"Forget it, it doesn't matter, they are all engines anyway."