"The past weeks seem to leave people the impression that the US has slammed the door shut for Chinese investors and that we have gone completely overprotective", he said, referring to the Huawei and ZTE cases. A US congressional panel said that the two companies pose a security threat to the US.
Recent friction over Huawei and ZTE's investments in the US reignited debate on whether Washington should use national security as an excuse to bar Chinese investors from contracts and acquisitions in the country.
"I think that ZTE and Huawei should be allowed to bid on these projects," Gary Rieschel, founder and managing partner of Qiming Weichuang Venture Capital Management (Shanghai) Co Ltd, told China Daily. "Obviously, it is a mistake to exclude them."
But the cases don't reflect normal Sino-US economic ties, he noted. "At the very senior level of government as well as business, there has been more collaboration and more engagement than decades ago," he said.
Robert Theleen, chairman and CEO of private equity firm ChinaVest, said the cases are incredibly complicated simply because of the sensitivity of the industry.
"It's safe to say that technology has overtaken the ability of political leaders so that they tend to make conservative decisions," he said.
Because the IT sector is so important and sensitive, it moves faster than political minds that fail to grasp the strength of it, Theleen said.
But he forecast that these companies would not be easily strained after the initial failure. Instead, they are "going back to the drawing board" right now.
'Gangnam style' life of young rich in Chongqing
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