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Opinion
The Editors

Chinese Deals Need More Western Scrutiny

Trade with China has security implications that need intelligent handling.
The U.S. blocked the sale of Lattice Semiconductor Corp. on security grounds.

The U.S. blocked the sale of Lattice Semiconductor Corp. on security grounds.

Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg
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Leaders from Washington to Brussels are increasingly troubled by the flood of Chinese money seeking acquisitions abroad, and asking themselves how best to respond. The answer is: more carefully.

The U.S. has a federal panel, created more than four decades ago, that scrutinizes foreign investments for national-security implications, but it isn’t adequate to the task. The European Union's current arrangements are even less satisfactory: Many EU countries have no such safeguards at all. And these failures matter, because no country has ever had to deal with an economic superpower quite like China.