The outgoing Trump administration could blacklist Chinese tech and game companies Alibaba and Tencent, potentially preventing American investors from trading their stocks on home soil.
As reported by The Wall Street Journal, which claims to have spoken with sources familiar with the matter, the two companies would be blacklisted over alleged ties to the Chinese military.
Although the decision has yet to be finalised, the Trump administration has already implemented other anti-Beijing policies, including blacklisting 31 companies with ties to China like telecoms outfit Huawei and cloud computing firm Inspur Group.
Tencent is best known in the games industry as the owner of League of Legends developer Riot Games, and partial owner of Fortnite maker Epic Games and Clash of Clans developer Supercell. The company has also helped bring various high-profile titles to China, including Rocket League, Call of Duty: Mobile, and PUBG Mobile.
Alibaba, meanwhile, established its own games division in 2017 to create titles in-house, and has also been making significant inroads into the world of esports, online gaming, and mobile game distribuition.