345: Chapter 345 Asset Freeze!

Shen Fei was happy for a few seconds, then started to feel the heartache, beginning to calculate how much of his hard-earned money he had lost.

"How much of ours was frozen?"

Li Qing glanced at his phone, looking at the encrypted file sent by Huang Tianya, and also started to feel the heartache.

"Not too much.

After selling Motorola, we only have a few settlement accounts left in the United States, totaling less than 8 million USD.

The main thing is the shares of some tech companies, about 2.8 trillion USD.

However, these assets are held through over a dozen subsidiaries and related offshore funds. They say they want to freeze them, but whether they can be completely frozen technically is not certain.

Holdings in offshore funds aren't that easy to freeze."

"It's fine, let them freeze whatever they want. We'll settle the score once they unfreeze it. First, deal with public opinion."

"Understood."

After Li Qing left, Shen Fei sat on the office sofa, continuing to look over the schedule for the Transsion Smart Home launch event.

The launch event was set for July 15th, with less than a week to go.

One week is not enough for the heat in the United States to die down.

But he knew in his heart that this time was a bit different. After all, this time it was the Military-Industrial Complex List, not the Entity List.

But domestically, whether it's the Entity List or the Military-Industrial Complex List, both will bring Transsion free publicity.

Meanwhile, just as everyone was getting off work, Digital Chat Station released a bombshell piece of news.

"Breaking: The United States Department of Defense has added Transsion to the Military-Industrial Complex List.

The reason is that Transsion is developing fighter jet engines.

I want to know, as a company that makes electric vehicles, it's already absurd enough that they'd make fighter jets, let alone fighter jet engines! And how come I didn't know there was such a project internally!!!"

The wording was brief, and today it was followed by three exclamation marks and a shocked emoji.

"Fighter jet engines? Transsion, a mobile phone maker, is working on fighter jet engines? United States, can't you find a more reliable reason? If they lack the wits, they can invite us to help."

"I'm dying of laughter. The United States is forcing a reason because they can't come up with one.

If Transsion really had that capability, would we still need to buy other companies' products?"

"I still remember a while ago the United States said cars were a threat to national security, but they hadn't sold a single one to the United States... It's truly hilarious."

"I feel like Obama has gone crazy."

"Is there a possibility that this news doesn't exist at all, and it's fake news released by Transsion itself? After all, the popularity of their smart home products seems to be dropping a bit fast."

"Exactly! It's not even as popular as Xiao Ai, so it's normal for Transsion to be a bit panicked."

"To the person above, stop deceiving yourself. Transsion's smart ecosystem users have already bought over 20,000 sets. When will your Xiao Ai PPT come out?"

Under the efforts of the propaganda department, everyone treated this as a joke. Even within the Mi Fans circles, this was considered the beginning of Transsion's decline.

After all, in their eyes, Transsion had started false advertising for the sake of popularity.

But right at 8:00 AM United States time, the Department of Defense's official website issued a formal announcement.

The content of the announcement was written very officially, roughly meaning that after investigation, it was confirmed that Transsion Technology was involved in the research and manufacturing of high-performance fighter jet engines, posing an unacceptable risk to the United States' national security.

According to relevant laws, Transsion was added to the Military-Industrial Complex List, effective immediately.

Then the Department of Commerce froze all of Transsion's assets in the United States, followed by an additional list of some United States companies invested in by Transsion.

It wasn't much, but it was enough to cause the global capital market to take a nosedive.

After the United States capital market opened, Apple's stock price fell by 4.5%, Qualcomm fell by 7%, Google also saw a certain decline, and everything on that supplementary list plummeted.

After the decline began, everyone finally understood why there were so many short positions early in the morning!

This caused panic to spread further, and retail investors began to abandon the stocks in their hands.

The Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq all fell by about 6.5%, nearly triggering a circuit breaker, and Obama's heart was also pounding non-stop.

Besides the United States, the FTSE, Nikkei, and KOSPI indices, major global stock indices all showed clear signs of red, and some even directly triggered circuit breakers.

It wasn't about how big Transsion is, but that this precedent set by the United States is too terrifying.

If they can sanction Transsion today with a fabricated reason, tomorrow they can use the same reason to sanction any investment bank.

After all, even for the United States, there are times when life is hard, and when that time comes, they will be the pigs waiting to be slaughtered.

Meanwhile, the investment banks were in chaos. Although they had received the news in advance and made preparations, their phones were still being blown up.

Clients were all asking the same question: "If Transsion's assets can be frozen, what about theirs?"

After all, facing these Chinese clients, the business manager at Goldman Sachs also didn't quite know how to answer.

Meanwhile, analysts at Morgan Stanley urgently issued a report.

"The Impact of the Transsion Sanctions Incident on the Global Tech Supply Chain"

Simply put, the content of the report states that it is currently impossible to assess the long-term impact of this event, but in the short term, global tech stocks are facing the risk of restructuring.

Under pressure from all sides, the White House in the United States held a press conference.

This time, regardless of whether it was Obama or Bryson, both were beautifully in hiding, leaving only press secretary Carney standing behind the podium.

While speaking, his eyes kept darting around to every corner. After all, this position really wasn't very safe right now; if someone were to get a little impulsive, he might be the one to suffer.

"The President has signed an executive order confirming the inclusion of Transsion Technology in the Military-Industrial Complex List.

This is a carefully considered decision, supported by sufficient intelligence."

At this moment, a reporter raised their hand to ask a question.

"Mr. Carney, why didn't the President come to accept the interview?"

"He is busy today."

"Mr. Carney, Transsion is a consumer electronics company. They make mobile phones, chips, cars, and batteries.

What evidence do we have to prove they are working on fighter jet engines?"

Carney hesitated for a moment, and after re-confirming that the surrounding environment was safe, he said:

"Intelligence details are classified and cannot be disclosed."

"Cannot be disclosed? Then how does the public know if this isn't just political deception?"

"The President has reviewed the relevant intelligence and considers the evidence conclusive." Carney still confirmed the surrounding environment, then his tone became firm, "Transsion is involved in military projects and poses a threat to United States national security.

This is the final conclusion."

The reporters continued to press, but Carney did not answer again. After finishing the statement, he retreated under the protection of the police.

But the public opinion on the internet continued to ferment, and many people in the United States were scolding him! Some people were even sending some United States specialties to the White House.

Under pressure, at 1:00 PM, Obama once again delivered a televised speech in the White House Rose Garden.